One mans trash, is an others savior(Scraped)
by TheDidactsHand
Summary: Cancelled due to my horrible grammar, punctuation, and spacing. A new version is being written.
1. Scarred World

**Hey guys, my name is TheDidactsHand; and i will be posting my first ever Fan-Fic on here. I have been on the site for about a year and a half now, and i finally had the inspiration to write something. This will be a crossover between Mass Effect and Halo; set during the Reaper attack on Earth. However, their will be a build up to it. This first "chapter" is a look at my OC, i want to gauge how people recieve my writing, and see if i can get some assistance as i continue writing. If it is well received, i will continue. Please review, and give me some feedback. Thank you for reading!**

Lorent Alistair, is what he was known by his parents and his one sister, Alice. However; in the year 2530, the Covenant found his homeworld, Eridanus II. The Covenant cut a swath through the defending Fleet, and like many other planets before it: it's fate was sealed. The Covenant were merciless in their assault, cutting down men, women, and even children. The Sangheili also known as the Elites, colloquially throughout UNSC space, lead thousands upon thousands of The Covenant's troops, throughout the many mega cities that covered the highly industrial outer colony. Lorent and his parents were in the process of heading to a starport to evacuate from the planet; unfortunately a CCS Battlecruiser looms it's bulbous head above, parting the clouds as a lilac beam of plasma begins to gather under it. The thousands of civilians gathered at the starport began to scream in absolute peril that echoed throughout the city. Lorent's mother squeezes his hand tightly, while his father; scoops up his sister in his arms. Yelling for him and his family to run. Lorent and his mother try to part the proverbial sea of people running to and fro, some on their knees, rocking back and forth; tears streaming down their faces as they pray to whatever deities above to save them. Others huddling together as they lay back and accept their fate. Looking back he sees his Father and sister lagging behind, then he hears the dreaded sound of plasma being discharged from the Cruiser above. The fluorescent white beam impacts the ground with tremendous force, instantly turning anyone near the epicenter into literal statues of glass, the most feared Covenant tactic during the war. As the beam moves, hundreds of people have their skin and musculature flash boiled as it continues on its path. Lorent watches as it draws nearer towards his Father and sister, he begins to shout frantically for them to hurry, but to no avail; as the lilac beam soon envelops them both. Lorent only seeing his sister's bright green eyes widen in shock before they too are boiled alive. As the beam moves on; Lorent turns his head away and begins to sob uncontrollably, his mother dragging him along as he slackens. As they run however, they find themselves facing down two squads of Covenant. Comprised of four Elites, six Kig-Yar or Jackals, and four Unggoy or also known as Grunts. The Elites begin to yell in their guttural language, the four mandibles that comprised their mouths, flexing inward and outward. Lorent's mother drops him and puts herself in front of him, yelling in defiance at the monsters, she then turns around slowly and looks down at him and smiles, mouthing the words "I love you" to him before she runs at the beasts. As she draws near, the leader of the groups steps forward. His hulking stature made more apparent as his mother closes in. He moves his hand to his hip, producing what seemingly appears to be a dumbbell. With a flick of his wrist, two four foot long white tuning fork shaped lines of ionized plasma appear from it, thrusting it into his mother's abdomen and exiting through her back. Causing an instant death as her internal organs are liquified from the intense heat, he then proceeds to lift her body up three feet off the ground. Then deactivating it, causing his mother to fall to the ground limp. Seemingly unfazed by the woman, the Elite steps forward, while the Unggoy and Kig-Yar devour his mother's body. Lorent falls to his knees, yelling at the Elite to go away as it stands over him him, preparing to do the same to him. It bellows with a deep chuckle, or what sounded like a chuckle. As Lorent faces down and cries, with tears streaming down his face. The world around him fades into nothing, so he doesn't hear the bird like Jackals squawk in surprise as they are mowed down into mince meat. The Grunts faring no better as the squeak and try to run, only to be shot mercilessly in the back. Rearing his head back the Elite turns his attention away from Lorent, to face down what was likely a squad of Marines. Letting out a roar of challenge, he runs to battle. Only to fly back a few mere seconds later to his previous position, his head turned at an unnatural angle. Lorent still crying feels something leathery grasp his shoulder, he starts screaming until he hears a deep, Male Human voice ask him... "Are you ok?" Lorent, still in shock opens his eyes slowly, to see a giant man in green heavy armor, with a gold visor reflecting back his face. Lorent passes out, only seeing the Numbers Zero Five One on a green chest plate.


	2. Haunting Revelations

**Welcome back, i am posting a new chapter today. As i have realized the first might have been too short for an introduction. This chapter will include some action, and some more info about Halo.**

 **I have edited this chapter into the proper format as well. I also fixed some flaws with my grammar, and Lorent's interactions and dialogue.**

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Location: Unknown garden world

Time: 0600 EST

Date: 2546 March 15th

Lorent shot up out of his bed, magnum in his hands. Sweat ran down his forehead as he scanned the room. Shaking his head, he lowered his weapon; tossing it onto the bed. Remembering where he was. He groaned in frustration. 'That damn memory…' he thought to himself. He slumped back onto the bed, grabbing his data pad from under it. Scrolling through he found an urgent message. Raising an eyebrow, he tapped the message, a short but prompt text read, "Spartan, gear up and be in the bridge in five mikes." Closing the message, he slid the data pad back under the bed. Standing up and grabbing the Magnum he had just discarded a few moments ago, and clipping it to his waist. With a satisfied nod he strode to the door and opened it. Heading to the armory.

Striding through the armory door, he looked around to find the technician responsible for his SPI armor. Looking around a bit more, he found the technician, standing in the back of the room, he appeared to be running calibrations on the SPI armors photo-reactive panels. The stand it was on helping it stay upright as he worked, the suit fading in and out of view until it completely disappeared from view. Lorent kept walking, standing behind the technician as he gave a fist pump of victory. "Is my suit ready?" he asked with a rasp voice. The Technician jumped and turned around. Holding his hand over his heaving chest. "Jesus Christ! A little forewarning next time? I almost shit myself." Lorent just looked down at him with a cold gaze in response. "We-well right, the suit. It's functioning perfectly, the damaged plating was removed and replaced with fresh ones, the photo-reactive panels were damaged from the plasma splashes, a direct hit would've made them inoperable." the technician rattled off, but Lorent ignored most of it after hearing it was combat ready. Nodding to the tech, he saluted Lorent and went to the otherside of the armory. Leaving Lorent to suit up into the SPI. Two and a half minutes later he was decked out in his black SPI, moving to the elevator. Stepping out onto the bridge, Lorent saw many crewman vigorously working at their respective stations, he kept sweeping the room until he found the captain in the CIC. Moving forward at a brisk pace, he reached the captain in a few steps. Coming to an abrupt stop a few feet away from him, clicking his heels and bringing his forearm to his head in a crisp salute. "Sir, Spartan A-219 reporting as requested sir!" He said in a respectful tone to the captain.

The captain in turn saluted him back, "At ease spartan." Lorent then widened his stance slightly and clasped his arms behind his back. The captain then moved to the holo table, bringing up an image of the star system. "Now, i'll keep this brief; we have found a planet emitting unknown signals, it is not Covenant in origin." Lorent raised an eyebrow in surprise, a rare thing for Spartans of any generation. "Have the Covenant found it sir?" the captain shook his head "No, not yet. ONI wants us on the ground ASAP. Their have been Cherenkov bursts in the star system. They will find it eventually. So your mission is to drop via HEV pod five clicks East of the source, from there you will trek to it by foot. You are to report in as you find the source, a bird will extract you at a TBD LZ. Do you understand the mission?" Lorent nodded "affirmative captain. When do i leave?" The captain shut down the holo table, then turned to face him "Now, go get geared up. We will be in stationary orbit in less than five minutes. Dismissed Spartan" Lorent saluted him, and did an about face walking down to the armory.

Lorent walked into the drop pod bay, all geared up. He is armed with a MA5C, that has an under barrel M301 grenade launcher, and a smart linked Recon sight. Strapped to his back was an M392 DMR, equipped with a suppressor, and a smart scope 4x optic. On his right hip he carried a suppressed M6/C Magnum, on his left hip he had four blocks of C12. Doing one final check-over, he stepped into an empty HEV pod. Closing the door with a pressurized hiss. As he did a pre-flight check, the pod rotated clockwise, giving him a full view of the planet below. It appeared to be a lush tropical world, with a sea of hurricanes spanning the Eastern hemisphere of the planet. Admiring the view for a split second, he soon went back to pre-flight, or pre-drop check. With everything green, he signaled the bridge he was ready. There was a light thunk and then a sense of vertigo as the pod was released. Already beginning to burn a faint orange as it quickly entered the atmosphere. The pod began to shake and bounce as it breached the upper atmosphere, the flames that had licked at the outer shell vanishing. At 25,000 feet the drag chute deployed, slowing the pod down enough for a human to be able to survive impact. As the meter on Lorent's HUD got closer to zero, he braced himself as the pod crashed down into the jungle, knocking out seven trees and knocking the local fauna off of their feet. All was quiet, the dust clearing. The pod's door exploded outwards, ricocheting off of a rock into another tree. Lorent got his weapons from the built in racks on either side of the seat, scanning the area before taking off in a light "jog" towards the source of the signals.

Two kilometers in, Lorent halted. Hearing a light humming sound, his instincts as a HEADHUNTER told him that a Covenant Phantom was approaching. With a rapid succession of blinks, his photo panels activated. Blending himself seamlessly with the foliage. Taking a knee, he listened as the humming sound got closer and closer. Then to his expectancy, a phantom flies overhead, hovering for a moment before the grav-lift activates, Lorent watched as four grunts and a lone skirmisher exited the Phantom. As they fanned out, the Phantom began humming again, accelerating off towards the west. Lorent observes the small patrol group, frowning as he contacts the captain.

"Archangel actual, i have made contact with a Covenant patrol, i repeat; the Covenant are here over." the line was silent for a few seconds before the captain responded. "Damnit, this makes things complicated… You have permission to engage, however if you are made we can not extract you. How copy?" Lorent sighs and responds "Solid copy on your last, moving in to engage hostiles. Will maintain radio silence until i reach the objective."

He turned his comms off. Turning his attention back to the small patrol group, trying to find the lone member that usually accompanied these patrols. After a few seconds of scanning the dense jungle. He found him, a grunt fifty yards to his 4. Lorent unsheathed his combat knife, and crept closer, closing the gap in seconds even as he stalked.

"I wonder if i will get the nipple when i get back! FonYap better not take it from me again or i swe-augh!" The tiny grunt's ramblings were cut short as Lorent embedded his knife through the top of the grunt's skull, splashing blue blood onto a nearby plant, staning it with a light blood hue. Sliding his knife out of its skull, he proceeded to see if the others had heard their comrades demise. They seemed to not notice, so Lorent sheathed his knife, pulling out his pistol and aiming at a grunt, pulling the trigger he immediately cycled targets; firing at another grunt, then the final. In the span of three seconds the grunts laid dead, violent holes torn into their heads, The skirmisher squawked in surprise, backing away slowly. But Lorent had already flanked him. The skirmisher bumped into him as it crept backwards. It turned slowly and looked up. Towering above him was a demon! The golden visor reflecting his visage back at him.

Before he could turn to fire at the demon, it had already grabbed his neck, squeezing until the bones were pulverized with a sick crack. Dropping the alien, Lorent looked on impassively at the mangled corpse. He reloaded his pistol and holstered it. Checking his HUD, he saw he only had a few clicks to go. He turned and began sprinting towards his objective at top speed.

He had finally made it to his objective, he hadn't encountered any Covie patrols since his last confrontation. As he crested the hill, his HUD began chiming. Alerting him that he had reached his destination. He was confused, he had arrived at what was seemingly a bowl in the earth, with no entrances natural or artificial. He looked down into the 'bowl', it was at least one hundred meters across, and maybe three hundred wide, a twenty five meter drop into it. Compared to the rest of the region, this was lacking barely any flora, much less fauna. He was about to radio Archangel when his comms suddenly crackled to life, a garbled voice began to work it's way through.

 _"Com- sold- i a- what you seek."_ Lorent's eyes widened and narrowed, he knew it had to be a trap of some kind by the Covenant. He disregarded it, and attempted to radio Archangel again, but he couldn't, a sudden burst of static washed through his ears. "Aghhh!" he gripped the side of his helmet with both his hands, the voice came back; this time it was crystal clear. " _Come. i am what you seek."_ It said. Then a 'bloop' sound came from Lorent's HUD. It appeared to be a way point that lead into the bowl.

With his comms obviously compromised, he had no choice. He leapt down the large drop, rolling forward as he landed to disperse the inertia, cracking the dry dirt. Standing back up, he withdrew his MA5 from his back, scanning back and forth across the bowl. With no signs of Covenant he began a steady march to the way point, occasionally stopping to scan the landscape ahead, as well as behind him. As the meters crawled down with his approach, he couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding, his instincts had saved his life countless times before, so he cradled the rifle tightly. The HUD beeped at him, letting him know he was at the way point.

He looked around, nothing but dust and patches of dead tall grass. Then in an instant, the earth began to rumble, small pebbles began to bounce as the tremors got bigger. Right below Lorent the earth began to split with an unnatural metallic groan, backing up a few paces; he watched as as well lit passageway was revealed, it appeared to be adorned in black blue lights running up and down the corridor. He took a tentative step forward, waiting for an ambush that would never come.

His comms crackled again, this time without the high pitched droning of static. " _Come. i mean you no harm soldier, i only seek your aid."_ Lorent not really convinced, but with no way to radio to call Archangel, he reluctantly entered the passageway. As he stepped in, the doors behind him shut much faster than they had opened, meaning this place had not seen a living being in quite a long time. Disregarding those thoughts, another way point popped up on his HUD. He raised his rifle and followed it, as he passed by other corridors, he noticed they too were lit. 'This place must have a very effective power source.' he mused to himself, still walking forward slowly. His footsteps not making a sound as he neared closer to the end of the corridor.

He noticed a wall with a set of doors. The doors themselves were huge, at least five meters tall 'what the hell? These creatures must have been giants.'. His thoughts stopped as they slid back into the wall, allowing him to enter. The doors closed with a clang when he stepped through, looking back over his shoulder, he shrugged and tightened his grip on the rifle yet again. Making his way to what appeared to be a control room of some kind, with a luminous set of consoles in the center. The rest of the room appeared to have nothing occupying it. Then the room was set ablaze by a large flash of blue light, Lorent's visor polarizing to compensate. After the light had died down, his visor unpolarized. What Lorent saw shocked him to his very core, standing on one of the consoles was a very Human woman; with dreadlocks, and white markings on her face. Her eyes were sapphire green, her face was heart shaped. Her body was covered in an advanced armor. She still looked very attractive despite the armor.

She smiled and spoke to Lorent " _Greetings, i am Yprin Yprikushma."_ Lorent still shocked, couldn't speak for a solid two seconds, and impressive feat to have made a Spartan take pause. "What? How is this possible?" Was all he could say.

She just simply gave a sad smile and replied

 _"Young soldier, you and the rest of Humanity, are not the first Humans to explore the void. In fact we were the first, and you are our descendants."_ Lorent is again gobsmacked with this revelation… 'We are their descendants?' Lorent took a step forward holstering his rifle "What happened? You look so advanced? Why are we just now finding this?" She backed away and slowly spread her arms outwards, the whole room was bathed in light, as what appeared to be pictures rotated around the room lazily.

Looking up, he saw pictures of ships he had never seen before, some big; and some small. They all shared a sleek resemblance to one another. Yprin began to speak.

 _"Millions of years ago, the creatures known as Precursors arrived in this_ _galaxy. They Created life, planets, and us._ " She paused showing a picture of a Precursor. " _They created two species; Humanity, and Forerunner."_ A picture of an ancient Human and Forerunner appeared. Lorent noticed the Forerunners looked remarkably similar to a Human.

 _"The Forerunners were like us in some ways. They were intelligent, strong, and proud. They sought to be the holders of an ideal called 'The Mantle Of Responsibility' an ideal created by the Precursors. Originally, they had decided to bestow us with that honor. The Forerunners in their insurmountable jealousy, destroyed them. Taking the Mantle by force. Ironically, that is how the enforced it. Join them, or die."_ She brought up a picture of a world that had been shattered into an asteroid field. Lorent's mind flashed back to his home world being glassed.

 _"But, all was not lost. The last Precursor, The Primordial, gave us the knowledge of their technology, propelling us even higher than we were ever before."_ A picture was displayed of Ancient Human soldiers marching in rank, with advanced armor and weapons, and ships the size of a moon.

 _"But nothing prepared us for the flood… it started as a simple dust compound, we used it to make our pets more intelligent. The Pheru was a Humans best friend. But the compound changed them, each generation becoming more grotesque than the last."_ she shed a single tear and continued " _They turned into the flood, a parasitic organism capable of destroying a whole species. They took our worlds, one by one. Each person they absorbed, the more intelligent they became. They used our dead against us… we managed to buy time by altering the genetics of half of our soldiers, when they turned into a flood form, they would attack the other forms. Buying us time to purge the damned parasite!."_ She huffed " _Unfortunately, the Flood had fled to Forerunner space, we had no choice… we cleansed every world the Flood was on, and this in turn caused the Forerunners to go to war with us. We were not alone thankfully, our allies; the San Shyuum stood with us in our final days."_

Lorent interrupted her before she could continue. "You were allies with those fanatical zealots?" he asked her. His cold emotionless tone caused her to flinch. " _Yes, they were our allies. We had a military alliance for ten millennia. Why do you ask?"_ she said in partial confusion. Lorent seethed but maintained his temperment "They have been leading a war of genocide against humanity for the last twenty years. They have killed billions, and burned countless worlds. All because we were an affront to their religion." He finished saying. Lowering his head, remembering all that they had taken from him.

Her mouth opened in shock, to think their most trusted allies would condemn this Humanity to extinction! She was outraged, but had to let it be. He needed to know the true history of Humanity, "

 _I am sorry, i didn't know. I will help you in any way i can, but we must hurry. Others are in need of your help."_ Lorent tilted his head, and asked "Who is it that needs my help? I thought you were the only one left?"

She smiled and spoke

 _"Before our homeworld was destroyed by the Forerunners, some of us fled this galaxy. A small pocket of Humanity so that we may have lived on. They reached a galaxy approximately one million light years from the Milky Way as you call it. But they were destroyed by an unknown enemy, i have only recently been able to see them, they like you; have devolved and re-evolved again. They are less advanced than either of us, but i sense they too are now in danger of extinction."_ Lorent could sympathize, but also remembered about his Humanity suffering the same fate "What about my humanity? I swore an oath to defend it with my life." She nodded her head in agreement " _I told you i would help you young soldier. I will keep my word, i have recorded the data about the passage of time in that galaxy, it appears to move much faster as compared to ours, a moth here is a year there. I believe you can help them with minimal time loss. I will give you the technology to crush this Covenant, and save the other Humanity as well. Do you accept young one?"_ Lorent lowered his head in deep thought, thinking of all the benefits. He was disposable anyway, and ONI had already cooked up another company of Spartan III's… It would also be a big win for Humanity to gain this technology… With that in mind, he raised his head and looked into her eyes "I accept."

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 **I literally spent hours on this, i hope it was a good read, and the Ancient Humanity twist was acceptable. The Forerunner cliche had run too dry. I wanted to take a new approach, and this was it. Next Chapter will include New toys, Portals, and lots and lots of Action. Thanks for Reading!**


	3. Reclaimed Glory

**Hello and welcome back. As I said last chapter, I will be introducing some Ancient Human tech for Lorent, and some other things before we get to "Earth". So I hope you enjoy this chapter, please give me some feedback on how you like/dislike it. Thank you for reading!(Edited to proper format.)**

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Yprin lead Lorent down a long stretch of hallway. Unlike the first corridor, this one was wider, and had more doors on each side. Eventually it ended, bringing them to a large room, something akin to a hangar. As Yprin "walked" Lorent asked with curiosity "What was this world in your time?" She smiled and replied _"This was an experimental weapons and technology station we had made during the war. We made the best innovations in weaponry and armor here than we had in a millennia. See, unlike the Forerunners who lived in their armor, we could shed ours at any time. Our armor works like a second skin, it is made with a highly resilient alloy that only the Precursors could make. It also had three layers of shields to protect the user. The inner layer was comprised of a crystalline reactive layer. This augmented the user's actions tremendously. The suit also has a compliment of self-renewing nanites within it. They will be able to repair most damage that would occur. The suit itself is powered by a small artificial star, that has been sealed with a dyson sphere."_ Lorent looks on at her, widening eyes behind his helmet. "They used a star to power their armor…" he thought dryly.

They continued walking towards their destination, which appeared to be some sort of medical bay. Lorent stopped before entering, having a flashback of his augmentation procedure at Onyx. He shook his head, abolishing that memory back into the deep recesses of his mind. As he cast his gaze over the room, he noticed the "beds" were actually tubes, with a black padding inside them. He walked over to one and looked at it quizzically. Until Yprin appeared beside it. He focused his attention to her as she spoke _"This room is where we made our soldiers better. Naturally we were strong. Stronger than your generation. But the Forerunners knew this, and began making their Soldiers stronger, forcing us to follow suite. These augmentations were chemical based, as opposed to your own of course; We had cybernetic implants, but most turned them down. On average, we used to stand around 3 meters tall. While our soldiers exceeded that, they were around 5 meters tall. If you choose to do this, these augmentations should be able to make you stronger by a factor of 10. Your speed will be unrivaled, your reactions would not be seen. These should be able to blend with your current augmentations, and since you are still a boy, your body shall grow to our standards. It will take a while, but it will happen. Do you wish to have this done to you?"_ She asked looking at Lorent's visor. He sat still and thought of the benefits, running his finger over his armor as he remembered the pain of his augmentations, his bones still ached to some degree. He thought about what Kurt had told him at Onyx. "Son, you will need every advantage you can get. Spartans live to win. By any means necessary." This is what Kurt had told him before his augmentation procedure. Clenching his fist, Lorent replied "I will do it."

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A few hours later

Lorent blinked a few times, the ceiling of the room coming into focus as his senses rebooted, so to speak. He tried to raise his torso up, but found himself restrained. Looking around, he saw Yprin looking at him with a look of confusion. He returned the look and replied "Why am I restrained?" he asked. She blinked a few times and stood with a surprised posture. _"Your… your body. It grew at an exponential rate. Your muscles tripled in density and mass, it was… surprising. I restrained you because I didn't want you to be harmed by your own movements."_ As she said this, the restraints lifted up and off of him. Lorent sat up, looking down at his body. He was taken aback by what he saw. His already impressive build had become (to Yprin's word) triple what it had been. He then slid out of the pod, his legs touching the ground as he swung them over. The cold metal surface of the floor surprised him. Shaking his head, he began to slowly stand up. Only to fall forward, catching himself on the adjacent pod. Breathing heavily, he began standing up again. As the dizziness passed, he turned and looked down at Yprin. She in turn, looked up at him with widened eyes for a few seconds before they returned back to their normal gaze.

"Incredible, your body seems to _have taken the augmentation well; You have grown approximately two meters in height, your bones have not taken any damage from the sudden growth, and your musculature is still intact. How do you feel?"_ Lorent looked down at his hands, and clinched them. "I feel fine. And stronger." Yprin smiled and nodded _"Well, come young soldier. I will give you the tools you will need for this mission."_ He nodded and followed her out of the room back into the main atrium.

Walking was somewhat difficult. As he had stumbled a few times, his muscles spasming with each step. He managed to keep pace with her despite his troubles. They walked for what seemed like ages. Lorent was about to speak up in protest until they suddenly halted. They were standing at a dead end. At least it appeared that way. Yprin held out her hand and touched the wall. Almost immediately it receded back into the wall, and slid out of view. She stepped through it, her luminous form lighting the dark space. She walked for about ten paces, she then stopped and raised her arms forward, causing the room to be bathed in a blue light. Stepping in himself, Lorent noticed that they appeared to be in some sort of armory, with sleek weapons levitating in place, and multiple rows of armor. Looking back to Yprin, he saw her motion her left arm to the right, causing a set of armor to appear from the floor. It looked menacing; it was black in color, with red lights running up and down the upper body, and most likely, around to the back of the legs from what he could see. The armor looked heavy, yet sleek at the same time. It had no protrusions coming from it. Unlike the Mjolnir armor series, it was all flat. Excluding the helmet, which appeared to have no visor, only sloped armor and two curved lines running from the top to the bottom neck guard. On the back it had what appeared to be a EVA kit of some kind. That was his best guess at least.

He stepped forward to the armor, looking up and down it as he inspected it. He was interrupted as Yprin spoke _"This is the diekdikitis, or challenger armor. The mainline of armor sets in our time. Like I said before, it carries three layers of shields; the outer layer is comprised of highly excited photons, or hard light, the middle layer is a magnetic field of plasma, the final layer is a form of particle shielding that was developed later in the war against the Forerunners."_ she said, pausing for him to absorb the information. She then continued. _"This armor is slightly different from the others in three ways: It is equipped with an optical camouflage emitter, usually only reserved for Elite units. The second, in the forearm sections of the armor, there are hard light emitters, which you can use as a shield, or they can be formed into a pair of blades."_ Lorent inwardly smirked at that piece of information. _"And the final way this armor is different, is that it has a gravity well emitter. This means you can directly control the gravity in a finite area, and you can also use it to boost or propel yourself to places you can't reach, as well as lifting things."_ Lorent was amazed by the power of this one armor set, running his right hand over the breast plate. He turned to her and asked "What about weapons? And if I am staying for a prolonged amount of time, how will I have enough ammunition?"

She just simply smiled and replied _"I have the solution to both problems, my dear soldier."_ She raised her right hand, her palm and fingers facing upward, slowly turning them to the right. As she did this, a series of weapons came up from the floor, and a small device along with them. She walked forward to the weapons, pointing at the first, a sleek weapon that looked as if two isosceles triangles had been stacked together.

 _"This is what was known as the Type 2. It is a versatile plasma weapon. It is powered by a micro plasma reactor in the internal housing of the weapon. It should run indefinitely, so long as the weapon is not damaged."_ She explained, so far he was impressed by its design and the prospect of unlimited ammo. _"It is capable of changing the way it fires plasma, whether it be a continuous beam, or tiny molts moving at staggering speeds. It is also capable of firing hard light jacketed plasma, which when it penetrates armor or skin, explodes on the inside."_

She stepped to the right, and pointed at the next weapon. _"This is known as the EV14, a shoulder mounted plasma lance. Like the Type 2, it is powered by an internal plasma reactor. It generates a lance of ionized plasma, capable of firing a beam that can turn anything in its path to molten slag."_

She moved onto the next weapon. The weapon itself looked like a very advanced SMG; It had no sight from what he saw, a very short barrel, and some kind of port. _"We called this, the LHL. It is a small weapon that is capable of firing a smaller hard light projectile at a greater velocity. It shreds shields in seconds, and is most effective at close range. It is powered externally through a ion battery, as it is too small for a plasma reactor to be an effective power source."_ Lorent nodded in approval, eager to hear about the last weapon.

" _The last one here is known as a LR20. This is something akin to a sniper rifle. Like the Type 2, it fires a hard light jacketed plasma round, with more kinetic energy. The plasma is highly volatile, so it will explode on impact, creating a melting effect on whatever it touches or penetrates."_ she finished explaining.

All the weapons she had shown him were very deadly in their own way. Lorent was feeling rather excited about the thought of turning them on the Covenant. Meanwhile Yprin looked at the small device at the end of the row. She interfaced with it. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then a small slip space like portal appeared, the weapons and device being sucked into it in a flash. The portal disappeared as quickly as it came.

Lorent looked at her in bewilderment. "What the hell was that?" he rasped. Yprin just stood there and replied. " _My solution. All the weapons including that device are now within a slip space bubble, it acts as storage, which you can call upon at any time. Now you can carry a vast array of weapons into battle."_ She said. He blinked a few times before shrugging.

He walked forward to the armor again, speaking as did. "Now how do I get this on?" he finished. Standing in front of the armor again. He felt a mild burning sensation in his neck, and it slowly progressed into a fiery pain. It caused him to drop to his knees, screaming in agony. As he screamed with his eyes closed, Yprin watched as the armor began to attach itself onto Lorent's legs, working its way up his body, the armor shifting and locking onto him with clinks. Eventually the helmet came out, two halves linking themselves around his head with a hiss. As the armor was finally locked in place, the red lines running along it began to glow, the ones on his face plate shining a blood red light down onto the floor.

Yprin watched as he shakily got to his feet. The armor appeared to have successfully attached out of slip space. _"I am sorry, your neural interface had trouble adjusting. I have calibrated it, so that shouldn't happen again."_ she said with a tinge of sadness for causing him pain. He looked down at her. He nodded in acceptance and replied. "It's fine ma'am, I've felt worse." he replied stoically.

Yprin smiled at his bravery. _"A true soldier of Humanity... How are the armor systems functioning?"_ Lorent looked at his HUD. It had allot of new features, such as the gravity well emitter, Optical Camo, hard Light emitters, and what appeared to be a menu of some kind. He tried to blink to activate it, and was surprised when he was propelled twenty feet in the air. He landed with a crash. "Ow."

Yprin chuckled _"You must use your neural interface, young one. Just think of what you want to do, and the armor will make it so."_ He nodded, closing his eyes in concentration. He felt the armor send a chill down his spine, and he opened his eyes; He was greeted with a myriad of settings, displaying the armor's status, and the rate of fusion in the reactor. Closing the menu with a thought, he finally looked back at Yprin. "Everything appears to be green ma'am." She smiled. _"Excellent, come. Now that you are equipped, I can send you on your way."_ Lorent nodded, following her again out of the room and back into the corridor.

He followed her through a series of hallways, until they had finally arrived at a very large room, big enough to fit a Strident Frigate with room to spare. It was very confusing to Lorent, as he had suspected he would be going by ship."Where is the ship?" she smiled mischievously _"You won't need one."_ and true to her word, a bright light suddenly was cast across the room. He didn't have to shield his eyes due to the armor already doing it in milliseconds. In the center of the room, was a man-sized slip space portal.

He turned to her and looked down into her eyes. "Where does this lead?" She raised her right arm, flipping it palm side up, and a picture of Earth was displayed. _"This is their home world. Like yours, they call it 'Earth'. I suspect the Precursors have something to do with it, as my scans haven't detected anything artificial, other than the settlements on the planet. I will try and get you on the planet. Unfortunately, silp space seems to be more erratic here. Making portals like these is highly unpredictable. Worst case scenario, you end up in orbit around it. Your Armor is suited for EVA operations for more than eight hours, so you should be fine."_

He didn't feel reassured in the slightest, but he had no choice other than to trust her. So with that in mind, he took slow, cautious steps towards the portal, pausing his approach to the spiraling portal, he looked back at Yprin. "What if these people don't believe me?" She smiled, her eyes glowing with… hope? _"I have provided you with sufficient data. Go now, help them any way you can. Goodbye, young soldier."_ He looked back at the portal, staring ahead. "My name is Lorent." he said before stepping through the portal. As it closed, Yprin smiled and whispered to him, even though he couldn't hear her. _"Good luck… Lorent."_

* * *

Location: Earth Sol system

Date: 2186, 6 months after the attack on the Citadel.

Time: 1400 hours GMT

Lorent came tumbling out of slip space. He began tumbling uncontrollably. He began to realize he was somewhere in space. Thinking quickly, he activated the EVA pack on his back, producing his own gravity bubble, and stopping immediately. Using the tiny RCS thrusters, he turned around, his breath hitching in his throat. Sitting before him in the void, was the unmistakable blue marble Humanity had called home for its entire existence. Earth. Though not his own. He didn't see the ODP array that would have surrounded it. In its place however, were dozens of ships, all mobilized in battle formations. "Did they detect my portal that fast?" he wondered.

While he mused with his own thoughts, his comms began to pick up a garbled message. Adjusting them via neural lance, he could steadily hear voice saying "Re-at th- is th- ss- Kilimanjaro. What is your status over?" Satisfied he had adjusted his comms to be compatible, he responded. "I read you Kilimanjaro, currently drifting on an uncontrolled vector how copy?" The voice responded immediately. "Copy on your last. Dispatching a drop ship to your position. Hang tight." "Copy that." he then shut off his comms, already seeing a tiny spec leaving the largest ship of the fleet.

Five minutes later, the drop ship was less than a kilometer away. Lorent deactivated the gravity bubble, as to not throw the ship off course. His comms chimed again, this time a different voice came on. "This is Kodiak 2-3-bravo. I am beginning my approach." As he said that, the Kodiak slowed down, rotating forty degrees to its left, revealing the open troop compartment. Lorent straightened his body facing towards the shuttle, activating his RCS in a short burst, which carried him into the troop bay. The door closed behind him. After he was sure he was secure, he commed the pilot. "I am secure. We can proceed." The pilot chirped back "Roger that. Getting us out of the cold. Most ricky tick." Lorent just sighed. He tried to stand up, only for his head to hit the sealing with a light 'thunk'. He hadn't even began to un-arch his back. Sighing in annoyance, he chose to crouch back down.

Another five minutes passed by before he could feel the aircraft begin to land, in what he guessed was the Kilimanjaro's hangar bay. After he was sure they had landed, he turned around towards the troop bay door. It slid open, allowing him to slide back out. Looking around, no one had noticed him yet, which surprised him quite a bit. He turned around after hearing a hiss come from the cockpit. A young man stepped out, his helmet cradled under his arm. He dropped down from the Kodiak, dusting himself off. He turned around to greet the person he had just saved, he had expected to see a man in a normal EVA kit, but all he saw were a pair of legs… At eye level no less.

He slowly began to look up, until the back of his head was pressed against his neck. To say he was surprised is an understatement. He began stuttering, slowly walking backwards and tripping clumsily. His helmet dropping with a loud 'bang!'. Some other crewman began to walk over to see what the commotion was, and they stopped cold in their tracks when they saw Lorent towering over the lone pilot. One of them drew their side arms, shouting. "What in the flying fuck is a Geth doing here!? Someone call fucking security!" he yelled. Lorent was confused, and tried taking a step forward, only to be shot by the crewman. The round only caused his hard light shields to flare lightly, having not taken a percentage of his shields. Lorent stopped, and turned his head to the crazed crewman. "What the hell is a Geth? And why did he shoot me?" he asked himself. He decided to take a step back towards his previous position. The crewman didn't fire again, which confused Lorent, until his augmented hearing, picked up a cacophony of footsteps closing in on his position.

In a matter of seconds, a dozen individuals rushed from around the corner, all armed. When they reached his position, the crewman backed off, including the pilot, who had remained on the floor throughout the whole ordeal. With them out of the field of fire, the squad of what Lorent assumed was an spec-ops unit, considering the way they moved, trained their respective weapons on him. He tensed and readied himself for a fight until a deep voice called out."Hold your fire men! I said hold your fire dammit!" They look among each other, nodding and lowering their weapons. But not low enough where they couldn't be brought back up again.

They parted in the middle, and he saw a middle-aged African-American man walk through. Lorent could tell he was a battle-hardened veteran just by watching him walk. He strode through the line of soldiers, stopping when he saw the red glow from Lorent's armor. Craning his neck up, he looked at Lorent with no sign of fear visible. He then began to speak. "My name is Admiral David Anderson, and who might you be?" he asked with a calm and even tone. Lorent however, after hearing his rank stood at full attention, going into a crisp salute.

"Sir! I am Chief Petty Officer Spartan A-219. Sir!" Anderson was taken back by this creature's military response. Returning the favor he saluted him back. "At ease. Why and how can you speak our language? No known race is as tall as you and speaks our language. Also, what is that armor? I have never seen it before."

Lorent nodded. "Believe it or not sir, I am Human." he began. The Admiral was skeptical until Lorent's helmet began to clink, the sloped facial plates folding into the armor. Revealing a very young man, maybe in his twenties."Just no Human you have ever seen before. I have come here with a warning, if at all possible, we must talk in private." Anderson scratched his stubble in deep thought, eventually nodding. "Very well, we can talk in the bridge. But my men will be watching your every move." Lorent nodded. "Affirmative Admiral. On your lead."

A few minutes into the trek to the bridge, Lorent had already noted key differences between this Humanities military and his own. For one, the UNSC designed their ships with a utilitarian design in mind, from what he could tell this Humanity prefered sleek curves and aesthetically appealing designs. The second, the crewman were much more relaxed, lacking a discipline that he would have normally seen in UNSC crewman. He watched as they passed multiple crewman playing cards, or simply relaxing. "I thought they were in battle formation? That usually means all hands on deck." he disbanded these thoughts as they approached what appeared to be the bridge, with two men, one on either side of the door.

They snapped to attention as Admiral Anderson walked through the door. Then back at rest as the rest of the group walked through. Lorent was surprised; The bridge was utter chaos, crewman yelling and running to either side of the bridge. Admiral Anderson yelled out to someone. "Admiral Hackett! What the hell is going on?" The person he called out to turned around, he was an old Caucasian male. He had tired, yet alert eyes, with a set of crow's feet in the corner of his eyes. He stared at Lorent for a few seconds, then turned his gaze to Anderson. "We have lost contact with everything beyond the sol relay. The rest of the fleets are mobilizing back here at Earth. I need you to get down to Vancouver with Shepard, and talk to the defense council." Anderson seemed to grimace for a moment before looking at Hackett. "Alright, I'll get down there." He turned his attention to Lorent "I believe I know what you were warning us about, will you help us in Vancouver?" Lorent nodded "Yes sir." Anderson smiled and nodded. "Come with me, we need to get back to the hanger bay. Bravo team, you're dismissed." The squad saluted him as he made haste back to the hangar bay, with Lorent in tow.

Down in Vancouver, Lorent followed Anderson, getting many stares as he walked, causing some already rushing people to stop what they were doing, or in some cases people falling over or hitting objects objects in the hall. The scene would have been comical, had the situation not been so dire. Lorent looked back forward, finding Anderson conversing with someone. He walked behind him, stopping a few feet away. A large Hispanic man stared at him wide eyed, forcefully nudging the man talking with Anderson. He seemed annoyed, until he looked to where the man was gesturing.

He opened his mouth in surprise. Looking to Anderson for an explanation, Anderson smiled and said."Commander Shepard, meet Spartan A-219. Found him drifting in his armor only five kilometers from Earth. Can you believe that? He says he is here to warn us. I believe it's the Rea-" "Reapers." The man called Shepard finished for him. He then walked up to Lorent, extending his hand towards him. "Thanks for coming, even though it may already be too late." Lorent shook his hand, careful as to not accidentally crush it. "It's my duty commander." Shepard nodded. "Glad to hear it. We are going to need all the help we can get against the Reapers." looking back to Anderson he spoke "Let's go, the council must be warned." Shepard continued walking side by side with Anderson, discussing Shepard's discharge.

The big hispanic man walked behins Lorent, trying to keep up. Eventually he catched up. He looked up at Lorent as they walked, attempting to talk to him."Hey, my name is Lieutenant-Commander James Vega." Lorent, still looking forward, replies with "Chief Petty Officer Spartan A-219." James gave a thoughtful nod. Asking another question. "So I take it you're not part of the Alliance? Because I've never seen armor like that, or heard of a Spartan branch." He nodded. "That is correct. I have yet to debrief your commanding officer on the entire situation. Until then, I can not reveal anything."

Vega frowned at that. He had hoped to find out more. As James and Lorent rounded the corner, they saw Shepard and Anderson talking to a woman in a slender and form fitting uniform. It appeared as if they had just finished. She walked away from Shepard and Anderson, only to stop as she saw Lorent walking past her, casting a shadow over her form while he walked towards the briefing room. She continued to stare as he walked away, slack jawed at the sheer size of him. James came up and tapped her on the shoulder. She faced James and asked a little too loudly. "Who or what the hell was that thing!?" She exclaimed.

James just shrugged. "I dunno. Apparently he is a Human. Admiral Anderson saw his face. Anyway, he said he came here to warn us about something. Shepard already knows, and I think the brass knows it too. They just can't believe it." The woman just shook her head. "Typical Shepard, he's always bringing around the weird stuff." James raised his eyebrow. "You know the Commander?" She smiled and looked at the doors to the council."Yeah, I used to."

In the Defense Council chambers, the four arranged counselors were pacing about, bickering among themselves. The doors opened and they all shut up. Shepard walked in first, Anderson following, then. To their surprise, an armored figure crouched down through the doorway, the colossal being caused them to widen their eyes in fear. Before they could jump to conclusions, Anderson stepped up to placate them. "Counselors, he is a friend. He came to warn us. But I believe he is too late in that regard." The counselors regained some of their composure."Very well then." The Counselors turned their attention to Shepard and Anderson. They begab arguing back and forth about these "Reapers", which apparently Shepard had tried warning them about years ago.

Internally Lorent scoffed."If the UNSC had such a warning, they would've taken the threat seriously, and at least prepare. This council wouldn't even listen to one of their own'" he was brought out of his thoughts as he heard Anderson called his 'name'. "Yes sir?" Anderson asked. "The counselors wanted to know what you came to warn us of." Lorent turned and looked down upon the counselors. He was going to speak, but one of the counselors gasped. "That's impossible! We have lost contact with Luna." The council woman yelled. "They can't be that close already!" Anderson said in disbelief One of the officers then spoke up. "Counselors! We have a visual from the U.K!"

All eyes turned to a video screen. A video showed an alliance soldier in a beret. His voice not heard amidst the screams of civilians, and the staccato of weapons being fired in the background. There was a loud fog horn like noise, then an explosion behind the soldier. The video went dark. Then switching to a news broadcast, it showed what appeared to be walking cuttlefish like ships firing blue beams of light at anything around them. It switched until multiple newscasts showed the same ships laying waste to cities around the world. Anderson turned to Shepard. "Why haven't we heard from Hackett?' Shepard doesn't reply. Instead, he look towards the sky.

Lorent followed his gaze, and saw dark storm clouds with red crackling lightning. A loud thrumming could be heard, and caused everyone else in the room to kook up as well. A Reaper descended down onto the city, immediately it's beam discharging, cutting down a swath of buildings. It changed course, heading directly for the Alliance HQ.

Lorent reacted faster than anyone, his movements a literal blur as he slung both Shepard and Anderson behind him. He stepped forward and knelt down. He crossed his forearms over each other, erecting a square barrier of hard light in front of him. The weapon struck the HQ seconds later, propelling the counselors forward and across the room, their large desk flipping towards Lorent, who held his ground. The desk impacted his shield, shattering into two halves that continue rolling to either side of the room.

After the room stopped shaking from the attacl, Lorent stood up. Scanning around him, his HUD only picked up two life signs. He turned around and made his way to where he had thrown the two back, finding Anderson already standing, only having a few minor facial lacerations. Shepard appeared to be dazed as he stumbled around for a bit. Eventually he shook his head. He slowly walked to the window, watching silently as the Reapers tore apart Vancouver. Anderson walked up beside him, watching with him. Lorent then spoke. "Door is blocked by debris, we need to go down." Shepard nodded and jumped down on some scaffolding below, followed by Anderson. Lorent used his gravity well emitter, slowing his fall so the weight of the armor wouldn't cause it to collapse.

As they walked on the scaffolding, a red beam of light halted their progress. It hit the scaffolding ahead of them, creating a ten foot gap. Anderson crossed first, just barely making it. Shepard followed next. Lorent barely exerted any effort with his jump, clearing it with ease. He saw Anderson and Shepard climbing up a ladder. He looked up to the ledge it led to. It was only a couple of meters high. He bent his knees slightly, then pushed off of the scaffolding, soaring up and over the ledge. Landing with a dull thud. He scanned the rooftop, then looked back to see Anderson and Shepard staring at him.

Anderson was the first to speak. "How in the holy hell did you get up here so fast?" Lorent just shrugged."I jumped sir. We should keep moving." Lorent said. He walked ahead, still unarmed. Shepard just looked at Anderson with a raised eyebrow. "Where did you find him again?" Anderson just shook his head, and followed Lorent. Shepard eventually followed suit. As Lorent walked, keeping a vigilant eye out, he heard what sounded like scampering up ahead. Quickening his pace, he saw what appeared to be a hunched over human. But as he approached it, it turned to face him.

Lorent stopped immediately. "What in the hell is that?" he thought. The thing started snarled at him as it crawled out from the dark, revealing its grey gunmetal skin, and dead white eyes. It reminded Lorent of the Flood Yprin had showed him. Dismissing his thoughts, the thing had crept closer. Then in an instant, it had leaped at Lorent, bearing some disfigured claws. Lorent watched it in slow motion, as he crossed his right arm over his torso, and backhanded it. The thing's head was instantly pulverized, and the body flung off of the roof, due to the raw force. Black blood splattered on the ground. Lorent heard more scampering to his right. He looked over and saw a dozen more crawling up the wall. He heard Shepard shout. "Husks! Take them out Spartan!" Shepard and Anderson then discharged their respective small arms at the horde.

Most went down in one or two shots, while another hoard of the Husks came for Lorent. He in turn activated his wrist mounted hard light emitters. forming a pair of three feet long hard light blades. He ran forward to meet the Husks head on. The Husks showed no fear, still charging headlong at him. Lorent bulldozed into the horde, knocking some of them off the roof, while the ones still alive screeched at him. Two leaped at him from behind. Lorent saw them on his motion tracker. He let them get closer, before spinning around, using his right hand to slice through one, bisecting it as it landed with a 'splat'. He then did a reverse roundhouse kick into the other one's face, causing it's head to explode in a black mist. The body flew back and tumbled past Anderson and Shepard, who had just finished killing off the Husks that were climbing up the. They both watched as Lorent faced down five more to his front.

One lunged at him from his side. That proved to be a mistake as lorent delivered an open palm strike to its chest, caving its chest in, and sending it flying off of the roof. From there, Lorent went on the offensive, rushing toward the two in front of him faster than the Shepard or Anderson could process. They watched as Lorent bisected the two, the four halves falling down with a pool of black fluid gushing from them. The last two decided to try and run, but he was already on them. Lorent grabbed both of their heads, and smashed them together in gruesome fashion.

Lorent turned to the commander and Anderson. "Area secure. Hostiles eliminated." Lorent said. Shepard nodded uneasily. "He made their heads explode with just his hands... What the hell is he?" Shepard thought to himself. A loud whine caught everyone's attention, as a Reaper began to discharge it's weapon in their direction. "Everyone down!" Shepard yelled, taking cover with Anderson. Lorent deactivated his blades, changing them into a shield. The weapon rocked the rooftop, causing a room to explode next to Lorent. He let the pressure waves from the explosion wash over him. The hard light shields taking all of the force. Lorent stood up, checking on Shepard and Anderson.

"Are you both ok?" They both nodded "We're green, Spartan." Lorent nodded, and looked at the destroyed room. "We will have to cut through the building here, and find a way to rendezvous with your ship. Do you know where we could do that?" Shepard replied. "Yeah, it should be safe enough down in the river. The city is a no-fly zone with the Reapers walking around. Follow me." Lorent let Shepard take point, and followed behind him. They moved through the building without encountering any more Husks, but they were halted by a door. It had been jammed a quarter of the way open.

Shepard tried to open it, but it didn't budge. "Dammit, looks like we need to find another way." he said, but Lorent stepped up to the door. "Allow me sir." He put his hands between the doors, pulling them apart from each other, which caused the mechanism that kept them stable to break, sending the doors receding into the wall. Lorent stepped back to allow Shepard to walk through. Shepard nodded in approval and moved into the next room, Anderson following him. He was about to follow suit, but he heard a noise behind him: It was coming from an open ventilation shaft. It sounded like a child crying?

Lorent walked over to the vent, his armor's red lights lighting the darkness within the shaft. Kneeling down, Lorent saw a little boy curled up in the corner. He shrieked when he saw Lorent. "Get away, you monster!" he yelled at him. Lorent in turn just willed his helmet away, showing him he was human. "I am here to help you" Lorent stated. The little boy just crawled back. "Everyone is dying." He said, looking down. Lorent tried to extend his hand to the boy. "Take my hand, I can keep you safe from the monsters." he said. A passing Reaper caused the building to shake, each step making the boy gasp. "You can't help me. No one can."

Lorent was about to try and forcefully grab him until Shepard yelled "Spartan. We're moving out." Lorent nodded to him and looked back to the shaft, only to find the child had disappeared. Lorent frowned, and willed his helmet back on. Standing back up to follow Shepard. After about ten minutes of traversing the broken building, they had finally made it to the riverfront. Shepard and Anderson were communicating with a woman who was going to be their ride. But as they walked along top the side of the building, a Reaper dropped down into the river., causing a tremor to shake the building.

It appeared to be targeting what the Alliance called a 'dreadnought', firing at it twice with it's main weapon, the dreadnought began to list. Then there was a bright, blinding white light, and an explosion was seen. The one kilometer long ship caused a gigantic shock wave. The building giving out from under them, causing the trio to fall. Lorent slid down the slope of the building, propelling himself off of it with a kick, landing on a knee and a fist below. Shepard and Anderson were less graceful; They fell down tumbling most of the way. Lorent went to secure them. "Are you two alright?" Shepard was the first to respond. "Just a few more bruises. Nothing serious." Anderson breathed heavily. "I'm good too." Lorent nodded in satisfaction. Looking forward, his augmented vision saw two Alliance marines. One appeared to be injured. He looked back at Shepard and Anderson.

"I've got eyes on two Alliance marines, approximately thirty meters ahead." Shepard stepped up, seeing the figures up ahead. "Lets go, they could have a radio we can use." Lorent and Anderson followed him, reaching the two in seconds. Jumping down into the cover they had taken, Lorent kept a eye out while Anderson and Shepard talked to the two marines. Lorent saw a group of bulbous creatures at the end of the broken dock, they appeared to have five eyes, one centered in the middle of their head. The weirdest thing Lorent saw was their gaping maw. He signalled Shepard."Commander, i see a squad of what appears to be more Reaper ground forces." Shepard nodded and said."Those are Cannibals, they are armed unlike the Husks, they can be deadly in groups, but a lone Cannibal is not a challenge. We have to get to that gunship, it has an emergency beacon we can use to contact the Normandy." Lorent nodded.

He used his neural interface to open the slip space storage, the Type 2 flying out of it, and into his outstretched arm. He quickly activated the weapon, it pulsed a deep vibrant blue, and hummed softly in his hands. Shepard was taken back by the weapon appearing out of nowhere, but quickly hid it. "Getting off Earth is priority one. I will find out about him soon enough." he thought, bringing his Predator to bear. Anderson stacking up behind Shepard."On my mark" Lorrent said, changing the Type 2 to fire HLJP."Mark!" He jumped over the wall they had been hiding under, charging the husk. Already letting loose a flurry of shots. All of them hitting the Cannibals. The results were devastating. The hard light jacket easily penetrated the chitinous armor of the Cannibals, the plasma expanding alarmingly as it's casing was lost. Essentially exploding inside the heads of the Cannibals. Burning their heads into pools of a disgusting brown liquid.

Shepard and Anderson quickly moped up the remaining stragglers. Announcing the area was clear, they began to activate the beacon, briefly communicating with the Normandy. Shepard suddenly yelled "We got company!" taking cover, a series of pod came crashing down from the sky. Depositing cannibals around the gunship .Lorent kept most of them at bay, the Type 2 making quick work of them in only one shot. While Shepard used his Avenger and singularity attacks to gun down and throw the Cannibals about. Lorent was surprised at the display of biotics, noting to ask about them later. A few minutes later into the fight, a sleek ship came down, Dropping a trio of missiles on the Cannibals. Swinging back around to the gun ship, lowering a ramp. The Hispanic marine James was standing there, along with the woman dressed in a blue uniform.

"Alright! That's our ride, let's go." Shepard boarded first, then Lorent. As soon as he boarded, he turned around to cover the Admiral. Only to see him standing there."Sir?" Shepard turned around, running back to the end of the end of the ramp. "Anderson! What the hell are you doing?" Anderson just looked down. "You saw those men Shepard! There are millions like them. They need a leader. I'm not going." Shepard replied evenly."We're in this fight together Anderson." Anderson shook his head. 'It's a fight we can't win. Go to the Citadel, get us some help." Shepard was clearly conflicted. 'What if they don't listen?" Anderson yelled "Then make them! Now go!" Shepard nodded, and Anderson nodded back. Lorent yelled for him.

"Admiral Anderson!" Anderson turned towards Lorent. "Good luck sir!" Anderson smiled and nodded, running back to a group of kodiak shuttles. As the Normandy climbed higher, Lorent and Shepard watched as a group of shuttles evacuating civies, was being attacked by a Reaper. Lorent zooms in with his HUD, the child he had tried to save looking right at him. Then running to a shuttle and boarding. Unfortunately, the Reaper strikes down the craft, and the one adjacent to it. Lorent and Shepard lower their heads, walking back into Normandy.

* * *

 **That took longer than i thought it would. I forgot about all the dialogue in Mass Effect. A gross oversight, i know. But i cut most of it out, i hope that is okay. If you guys want, i will start writing the dialogues down too. And i should have gave a description of Lorent before he got augmented(Again) Lorent is 20 years old, before he was augmented by Yprin, he was 6'10" or 2.083 meters tall and 280 pounds. Now he is 13'4" or 4.083 meters, and 840 pounds. Let me know what you think of his new augmentations, weapons, and armor. Thank you for reading! I would also like to thank Apollonir for helping me out with the** **formatting. Along with others who pointed out the problem to me. I hope this revised version is much better to read. Thank you to BOTB for giving me some helpful advice about writing this story better. I ask that everyone be patient with me, as i continue writing.**


	4. Possible Salvation

**Welcome back! I would first like to thank everyone who followed or favorited my story. It means alot to me. I would also like to thank everyone who gave me advice, and also the people who reviewed giving me feedback. I realize I messed up big time with the formatting. I apologize for that. I plan to familiarize myself with it more, so that I can make my story legible. Also everyone wondering about Lorent's full backstory; I will reveal it as the story progresses, and he is more acquainted with the entirety of the crew. That way I feel the reader can connect with the main characters of the ME verse. Maybe, I don't know. Anyway! Onto the chapter! Thank you for reading!**

* * *

Lorent followed Shepard through the small cargo bay of Normandy. James stomped behind them, yelling for Shepard as he followed. Shepard looked back for a second, but continued his path to the end of the cargo bay. Lorent stopped, watching a James passed by with a huff. He watched as James yelled at the Commander again.

"Hey! Where are we going? Where's Anderson?"

The Commander looked back at James,then turned around yet again. Walking towards the console at the end of the cargo bay. This time responding as he was in stride. "We're leaving" He then walked to the orange console, looking down at it in thought. James not relenting, continued his questioning.

"Leaving?" James said rounding on Shepard as he stared down at the console. The woman stopped what she had been doing, turning around to address the Commander as well. "What's going on?" she said. Lorent noted her voice was that of a North American. He watched as the Commander was metaphorically cornered by his subordinates. He looked towards the woman, addressing her first. "Anderson ordered us to the Citadel to get help." he finished looking back to James.

James didn't seem to like that answer, as he stepped up to the Commander. "Bullshit, he wouldn't order us to leave!"

Shepard turned to face James, trying to calm him down. "We don't have a choice. Without the help of the council, this war is already over." James shifted on his feet for a moment, then replied immediately. "Forget it, just drop me off-" He didn't get to finish his statement, the commander stepped up to him, pointing his right arm at him. "Enough! Don't you think I would rather be out there fighting?" He paused, looking back and pointing to the direction of Earth. He turned back to James, his face was contorted between a look of sadness and anger. James stared back at him, his face seemed like he wanted to argue, but he did not interrupt the commander as he continued. "We're going to the Citadel. You wanna ride, you can catch one back from there." Shepard looked back at the console, finished with James.

James threw is arms in the air with dissent, shaking his head and turning around, walking back towards Lorent. He looked up at Lorent, seemingly about to question his fortitude. Before he could, a voice came on over the comm system. "Commander." the voice said. Shepard stopped his tapping on the console, looking around as he replied. "Joker… Is that you?" Shepard said with what sounded like relief.

The voice, now identified as 'Joker' replied instantly. "Alive and kicking… well not kicking, as I would most likely break my tibia in the process." Lorent raised his eyebrows behind his helmet. While James turned around, facing the commander yet again. Joker continued with his statement. "Umm, anyway. Admiral Hackett has an emergency transmission for you. Patching it through to your console now." And on cue, a distorted video feed of the Admiral came through, most of the audio being garbled. "Shepard- sustained heavy losses, Re- force was overwhelming.- No way to beat them conventionally…"

Shepard lowered his head. Addressing the Admiral. "Admiral Anderson has already ordered me to the Citadel, to get the support of the Council." The Admiral shook his head. "First, I need you- alliance outpost. Doctor T'Soni -und a way to b- Reapers… Only way." Shepard gave him a salute. "Yes sir." The tired Admiral nodded."Will b- in cont- soon. Hackett out." The feed died with a black screen.

Shepard looked around, and called out on comms. "Joker, set a course to the Mars Archives." Joker came back on the comm immediately. "Mars? Sounds like a great time. Setting a course for the red rock!" Joker said with his usual, humorous tone.

Shepard in the meantime had walked over to a small makeshift armory. Looking over the various armor sets and weapons that laid scattered across the table, he picked up an M-5 Predator. James looked to Ashley. "This is loco." Ashley turned from James and looked at Shepard. Somewhat agreeing with James' statement. With a Reaper armada in the Sol System, it was near suicide to stick around.

"What does he even think we will find there?" she said crossing her arms, and raising her right eyebrow. Shepard turned around, his face filled with grim determination. "I don't know yet. If it has the potential to stop the Reapers… It's worth investigating." he finished, James didn't seem that convinced, Ashley seemed to nod slowly, still in deliberation over the entire situation. Lorent had already made up his mind. A way to stop the Reapers without wasting thousands of lives, seemed to be the only option. From his understanding, the Reapers serverley outclassed the Alliance, and whoever this 'Citadel Council' was. He had a sinking feeling that this Humanity had better relations with Xenos than his own.

He stopped that thought immediately. The very premise of working with aliens made his spine quiver. Aliens had taken everything from him, he would be damned if he would be cooperating with any. Abolishing his own thoughts, he looked to the Commander, who was in the process of strapping on a chest plate. It had a white 'N' and a red '7'. Lorent mused that must be some sort of Spec-Ops unit.

Lorent had not moved from his position since the ordeal began, so he decided to make his way over to the group. The second he took his first step, a deep thud reverberated throughout the cargo bay, catching the attention of everyone that had been gathered at the end of the hold. The woman seemed to tense as he approached, the deep thuds he made while walking were not helping her in the slightest. As Lorent took his final steps, he stopped about three feet away from the group, looking at the Commander, who in turn looked back at him.

"Spartan, I almost forgot about you… as impossible as that seems given your…" He paused looking for the right words. "Stature. Now; I don't suppose you heard all of that right?" Lorent nodded. "Affirmative commander, I understand the situation. I am ready to exfil on your word." He replied. His monotone and almost synthetic voice unsettled Ashley. She did not trust this so called 'Human' one bit. She had enough to deal with Shepard being possibly Cerberus, and now a monolithic-being claiming to be Human and here to 'help'. His arrival right before the Reapers wasn't helping either. So she decided to try and neutralize the threat before it could hurt them.

"Excuse me. But what the hell is this thing? It shows up right before the Reaper invasion, and we're supposed to believe it's here to help? I mean look at it! It's bigger than a Geth Prime!" That word again, was that some unit classification of a hostile species? He mused while Ashley continued. "How are we supposed to trust that thing? It could be a new sentient Reaper unit for all we know!" Lorent had enough. Willing his Helmet away, creating a series of 'chinks' and 'clunks', interrupting Ashley before she could finish. His helmet folded down into his neck guard, revealing his pale and scarred face, his luminescent brown eyes, while they shone with an ethereal glow, seemed cold and calculating. Like a predator stalking its prey.

Ashley unconsciously shivered at the man staring down at her. She instantly regretted opening her mouth. 'Why the hell did I say anything at all!' she thought to herself. Her face remained blank, not displaying any kind of emotion, while Lorent's cold impassive visage dissected her every move. The moment lasted about five seconds, but it felt like an eternity to her, until he finally said. "Satisfied?" Ashley noted he sounded much younger, and incidentally more Human without the helmet on. She slowly nodded. He didn't display anything acknowledging her, his helmet just reassembled around his head, the lights running down the sloped armor plates blinking red as the helmet stopped assembling.

With his helmet back on, he turned to Commander Shepard. "Commander, what is our ETA for Mars?" Shepard continued putting on his armor, looking up at Lorent as he went along. "About an hour with Sub-Light speeds. We can't afford going FTL, we need to reach the relay as fast as we can after this mission, so we must conserve our Eezo. So in the meantime, you can tour the Normandy. I'll have Joker send for you once we are in orbit." Shepard directed his full attention back to his armor. James took a few tentative steps towards Lorent. Looking up at him, he gulped. "Umm… Hey big man. I can show you around the Normandy." Lorent turned around, looking down at James, giving him a nod. James smiled, and turned around. Heading to the set of doors at the hall behind them. Lorent followed him, unsure if he could fit through the door. To his surprise, the door was wide enough for him to squat his way through. As he made it through, James was waving at him, in what appeared to be an elevator.

After squeezing his way around the Normandy with James for about forty minutes, he had explored everything it had to offer. He noted the lack of crewman aboard. He assumed most didn't make it off of Earth. He also was surprised to find a ship born A.I, although nowhere near as advanced as the UNSC's Smart-A.I. She had a dry personality, and seemed completely rudimentary in comparison. James was surprised when had no reaction to 'EDI'. That was her name, but apparently A.I are highly illegal in 'council' space. When he replied that A.I's were commonplace where he came from, James had inquired as to where he came from. Lorent gave him a "Classified" in response. Lorent didn't want any more aliens to be able to attack the UNSC or her colonies.

They were heading back to the elevator, when the comm system whined. "James, Shepard needs you and the Spartan to report back to the cargo bay ASAP. We just entered Mars' orbit." James smiled. "Time to get this show on the road big man." Lorent didn't acknowledge him, stepping into the elevator. "Right… Not a big talker." James stepped into the elevator as well, pushing the button for the cargo bay.

Down in the cargo bay, Shepard was with Ashley. They were both in their hardsuits. Shepard was armed with an M-8 Avenger, and folded down on his hip was a M-5 Predator. Ashley had an M-15 Vindicator cradled in her arms, while sporting a M-7 Phalanx on her hip. They were currently discussing the upcoming mission. "Why aren't they responding to our hails?" Shepard said looking at the console. "Something doesn't feel right here, Shepard… Maybe it has something to do with our new 'friend'" she said crossing her arms. Shepard let his body slacken on the console, sighing in annoyance. "Again, Ashley? That man saved me and Anderson's lives back in Vancouver, as far as I'm concerned, he is part of this crew."

Ashley hummed in response, leaning back against the wall. Only to push off of it as the door to her left opened, James striding through it. The Spartan crouch-walked his way through the door. As soon as he cleared the doorway, he stood back up to his full height. He looked at Shepard and Ashley, making his way over to them.

"How did you find the Normandy, Spartan?" Shepard asked him as he walked over.

Lorent stopped at the wall she was leaning on, causing Ashley to step back a few paces. Lorent noticed it, but didn't react to it. Replying to the Commander. "Fine, sir. What's the status of the mission?"

Shepard stopped typing on the console, turning around to face the Spartan. "Straight to business. I like it." He grinned. While Ashley just huffed in annoyance. "We aren't receiving any comms traffic from the base. But a Reaper presence hasn't been detected either. We believe something else has happened, we just don't know what yet." He paused. "A roving sand storm has made any imaging near impossible. So we will be arriving in a Kodiak shuttle, and we will have to inspect on foot." Shepard finished.

Lorent sat there and pondered on the parameters of the mission. He didn't like going in with no information, even his most vague HEADHUNTER ops had some sliver of information. He viewed his HUD, checking the optical camouflage, when it read green, he closed it. Looking back down at Shepard. "Commander, I can go ahead of you and recon the area. My armor is equipped to help me be able to infiltrate." Shepard raised his right eyebrow, shifting on his feet. "I don't see how. I think whoever is down there would be able to see a thirteen foot tall black suit of armor." Lorent simply activated his optical camouflage, instantly becoming nothing more than a shimmer of refracted light.

Shepard instantly spun around, searching for the Spartan, only seeing an empty cargo bay. He turned around to where he last saw him. Focusing on where he had been standing, he saw what appeared to be a shimmer, a distorted area of light. Lorent then deactivated the emitter, causing his armor to reappear in seconds. Shepard nodded in approval. "Impressive. I couldn't even see you… even so, we can't afford two trips with the Kodiak. We don't have the time." He expected him to relent, only to be shocked by his next words.

"This armor is suited for orbital insertion, if we are pressed for time, I can reach the surface via orbital drop." He stated calmly, as if it was a common occurrence. Ashley choked. James just muttered something about being crazy. Lorent ignored the reactions, he focused on Shepard. "Are you insane!? I won't allow you to kill yourself just for some recon!" Lorent frowned under his helmet, but kept his cool. "I have been orbitally inserted in over sixty successful operations Commander. I am perfectly capable of surviving the drop and being combat effective." Lorent said with a mechanical tone, as if he was just a machine. Shepard shook his head, and relented. "Fine, we don't have time to argue. Report to the airlock, as soon as your ready, Joker will jettison you. Good luck Spartan." Lorent nodded and headed for the airlock in the upper levels of Normandy.

As soon as he was out of sight, Ashley and James both rounded on the Commander. Ashley spoke first. "What the hell is wrong with him? Why would he willingly volunteer to drop from ORBIT! This doesn't feel right Shepard." She cast her eyes downward, worrying whether or not the Spartan would be behind all of this. James just simply stated. "el hombre esta loco" Before walking towards his armor and weapons. Shepard just looked at the door Lorent had just disappeared through, shaking his head. "I believe he will be fine. I saw him doing some pretty death defying stuff down in Vancouver. That armor he has is like nothing I've ever seen before. We just have to hope he can make it." With that said, Shepard made his way over to the Kodiak. Ashley followed soon after, along with Vega.

* * *

Meanwhile in the airlock…

Lorent had made it in under two minutes, an impressive feat considering how small the Normandy was. The very few crewmen aboard steering very clear out of his way. Cutting his musing short, he checked his armor's seals. Satisfied it wouldn't be compromised, he commed the pilot. "This is Spartan A-219 to Joker. I'm green for jettison. Over." There was a choking sound on the other end of the comm, and glass breaking? Lorent was about to repeat his last, but Joker cut him off. "I see. Planning on being a crater in the ground?" Lorent just banged on the wall, causing a deep reverberation that shook Joker's seat. "I see. Standby for jettison. Make sure to tuck and roll!" Joker said before the door on the airlock began to beep, a red light flashing constantly. Lorent readied himself, the light turned green. And the door opened, immediately sucking him into the void.

He was slowly drawn into the planet's gravity well. He watched as the dead planet became more clear, he saw nothing but red crust for kilometers around each side, unlike the UNSC's Mars, which was heavily industrialized, holding the biggest shipyard in UNSC space. The Alliance's Mars was not even touched from what he could see. He saw a giant patch of red clouds roving from the East. He figured that must be the storm that the Commander had mentioned. Once he had his fill of the view, he used his EVA pack to propel him forward, he began to feel heat as he entered the upper atmosphere, the flames licking his armor as he continued his decent. He made it into the lower atmosphere in only a few seconds. He tilted his body forward into a controlled dive, the winds whipping across his armor. Lorent could not hear it, only a muted thumping around his helmet. Once he reached five thousand feet, he turned on his comms. "Commander Shepard, I have almost reached the surface. I will alert you as I come within one click of the Archives." Shepard sounded surprised and replied. "Alright Spartan, we'll await your word."

The last few hundred feet to the surface were spent in silence. Lorent flipped into a pencil dive, activating the gravity emitter. It slowed his decent tremendously, but he was still falling at a high rate of speed. Preparing for a hard landing, he tensed his muscles in his legs, ready to do a rough tuck and roll. His HUD beeped as he made contact with the ground, red dirt exploded upward as the 1200 pound Spartan hit with a fraction of the force of an Onager. Lorent tried rolling forward, but his armor put too much strength behind it, sending him flying off of the tall mound of dirt he had landed in, and sprawling to the crust fifty feet below, leaving a sizeable imprint.

Lorent blinked, trying to focus. He only saw darkness. He tried flexing his arms and legs. They jolted his response. That was good, as he had not broken anything. He brought up his HUD menu, checking the suits integrity. To his relief, it was completely intact, and his reactor hadn't been damaged. Satisfied he was combat effective, he pushed himself out of his imprint in the crust, slowly kneeling. Then standing up to his full height. He scanned the horizon around him, nothing but red patches of dust swirling in the wind, and mounds of rocks and dirt. He shook his head, turning on his nav marker. He was pleased to find he was only a scant two kilometers from the Archives. With everything in check, he began to sprint at full speed, outpacing a M12 LRV by a factor of 2, and leaving a large contrail of red dirt that plumed behind him.

When he hit the one kilometer mark, he began to slow down a bit. He commed Shepard. "Commander. I am one click outside of the Archives." He waited for a response, it took too long for his liking. He had a feeling comms were being jammed by the storm, or whatever has control of the Archives. Turning off his comms, he brought the LR20 out, cradling it as he began encroaching on what he guessed was the outer perimeter. It appeared to be void of any life, Human or Reaper. Neither boded well to him as he kicked the front gate. The gate immediately caved in, tossing the thing well over forty feet away, causing a metal crash as it collided with some sort of vehicle. Lorent smacked his helmet in frustration. 'These new augmentations are proving to be more difficult than I had thought.' He eventually made his way deeper into the compound, finding signs that indicated a fight had occured, blood had seeped over numerous containers that littered the compound, some vehicles had been completely burnt out, leaving a charcoal black husk behind. He activated his optical camouflage, creeping forward to the next gate.

He bent the last gate away, this time taking care to not accidentally send it it had been bent far enough, he entered the last compound, he saw that the Archives stood at the end. He also noticed the signs of fighting were incredibly more fresh than the last, he even found a few corpses that still appeared warm on his thermal vision. Suddenly he heard a voice cry out, he went into a crouch. Working his way to a smoking Mako, he pressed himself against the armor. He shuffled to the end of the Mako, looking over it. He saw what appeared to be four individuals in yellow armor, armed. They had yellow highlights running down their armor, their helmets sporting no visor, only a red sensor array. Lorent was sure these were the hostiles who had assaulted the Archives, but he needed confirmation. He turned on his comms again, trying to raise Shepard. Though before he could, he heard a muffled shot. A body crumpled to the ground, his augmented hearing picked up the four individuals moving to the area the body had dropped. Standing back up to look over the Mako; his eye twitched in anger. He saw a young woman, lying dead and unarmed. Her hardsuit punctured right below her abdomen. Her eyes hung open in shock. Lorent also noticed the symbol of the Alliance on her shoulder.

He didn't hesitate, bringing the LR20 to bear, sighting in on one of the troopers head. The scope blinked red, indicating it was on target. Lorent pulled the trigger. The larger brethren of the Type 2's HLJP crossed the small distance in less than a millisecond, impacting the side of the troopers head, cracking his helmet open, and burrowing into his skull. Once the hard light dissipated, the plasma rapidly expanded throughout the troopers head. He was already dead, so he didn't scream as the field of plasma expanded, then exploded in a redish purple plume of smoke, showering his fellow troopers with the remains of his once whole cranium. Before the troopers could react to their comrades death, Lorent had leaped over the Mako, clearing it by twenty feet. He landed on the back of one of the troopers, instantly crushing his amor and torso into a fine red past. The third trooper had managed to fire a shot, though it sailed wide over Lorent. He responded in kind, slotting a HLJP into the troopers head.

The last trooper began to fire wildy, each shot missing Lorent by a wide margin. The trooper's weapon eventually overheated, but before he could reload a fresh thermal clip, he found himself being lifted into the air. He began to kick and scratch whatever had lifted him off the ground. Whatever had him in it's grasp slowly began to reveal itself. There was a shimmer, and then a monolithic suit of black armor was revealed. The trooper looked down, realizing he was well over five feet off the ground. Then he slowly looked at the 'face' of the demon. Only to be met with an armored carapace, the lines on it pulsing a blood red. He tried kicking it on the chest again, but to no avail. The Demon's grip was vice like. It seemed to appraise him for a moment or two, just holding him firmly in its grasp. But then it spoke. "Who are you affiliated with? How many of you are here? What is your objective?" It asked with a mechanical tone. Something akin to a cheesy sci-fi vid. But this thing was very real… And very angry. The Cerberus Trooper answered as he had been trained to. Information was their Sword and their Shield after all. "Cerberus Assault Trooper G2445." The Demon did not like that response, evident by the fact it's grip had increased in pressure. "One more time." It said with a tone that could make the most morally unethical agent shiver. Alas, he didn't relent. "Cerberus Assau-" Was all he could say before his neck was crushed in the hand of the Demon.

Lorent dropped the mangled trooper, musing with his own thoughts. 'Cerberus? Some sort of organization? Obviously not friendly with the Alliance. Maybe it's a insurrectionist group of some kind.' He couldn't analyze the morsel of information any longer as his comms chimed. "Spartan? Can you hear me?" The Commander's voice came through, a thick layer of static accompanying his voice. Lorent heard him perfectly fine, replying. "Affirmative Commander. I am in the final compound, I have a visual on the Archives. Be advised, I have encountered enemy combatants. Identification Cerberus." Shepard responded frantically. "Cerberus!? Are you sure Spartan?"

Lorent glanced at the dead troopers, then replying. "Affirmative Commander, engaged four. Three were KIA. Attempted to interrogate the last. He was terminated after two attempts of information gathering." Shepard remained silent for a few moments, but eventually came back on. "Roger that. We will be there shortly. Hang tight." With that the comm line closed, leaving Lorent to muddle around the desolate compound. The winds whipping around the dust, causing the tiny particles to plink off of the broken metal, creating an eerie sense of foreboding.

Lorent discarded the LR20, replacing it with the Type 2, setting it to fire a lance. He snapped up the rifle, slowly walking around the compound, ready for an encounter to come knocking. Unknown to him, he was being watched, on the hill overlooking the Compound; three squads of Assault Troopers lay in wait. The leader of the group seemed to be feeding a video feed of Lorent pacing back and forth, he then spoke to an unseen person. "We don't know where it came from, it ambushed Gamma squad, killed them in less than six seconds." A voice on the other end of the feed hummed in thought, eventually replying. "Try to take it alive. I have a feeling it will prove invaluable for this war." The voice finished, ending the feed. The Cerberus troops went into action immediately, slowly progressing down the hill, the leader holding up his hand, pointing his finger to the left, then to the right. The two squads went to flank Lorent, while his squad pushed up directly to him.

Lorent heard the shuffling of feet across the crust in the compound. Some sounded like they were on his flank, while the most prominent ones were coming from his twelve. Raising the Type 2, he stalked forward, stopping when he saw the silhouettes of four more of the men in white armor. He was about to fire on them, until the leader came forward. His hands were raised, as if he meant no threat to the Spartan, Lorent knew otherwise. However he kept his finger from pulling the trigger, for now...

The leader had encroached fifteen feet away from him. He raised the Type 2, indicating 'That's close enough.' The leader seemed to get the message, stopping in his tracks. His arms slackened down to his sides, in a relaxed manner, as if he had nothing to fear. He then brought up his left arm, creating some sort of orange display around his forearm. He tapped on it for a few seconds before he closed it. He looked at Lorent, finally speaking. "Our Leader requests your presence. You are to surrender immediately. And hand over any tech you have on you."

Lorent scoffed at this."And if I refuse?" he challenged. The man didn't flinch, only replying. "We kill you, and take everything you have anyway. So what will it be?" As he finished his statement, the two squads that had flanked him began to come closer. He heard the distinct sounds of weapons being loaded. He activated his pulse array, giving him an accurate count of the troopers surrounding him. He counted twelve in total, four on his left and right, and four to his front. After he had an accurate reading, he brought the Type 2 up. Targeting the leader's head. There was a high pitched whine, and then a blinding iridescent beam. The leader couldn't even attempt to dodge it. The beam cut through his armor like a hot knife through butter, leaving his head a mixture of molten slag, and bone fragments. This all happened in the span of a second.

The rest of the troopers moved to react, but their movement were as if they were suspended in a thick syrup. Lorent had entered into the fabled 'Spartan Time'. His new augmentations seemed to increase his speed dramatically, as he had closed the gap between him and the soldiers in front of him in a mere second. He struck the trooper on the left with a reversed elbow, caving in his helmet, and sending him flying back. The other two couldn't react as he spun around, delivering a vicious back hand to the one on his right, nearly ripping off his head, as he flew into a destroyed Mako. The last one was sent flying back after he received a reverse roundhouse kick to his sternum, causing an instant death.

Time seemed to revert back to it's normal flow, as Lorent turned to face the remaining hostiles. He raised the Type 2, changing it into HLJP. He sighted the troopers on his left. They appeared to be in shock, as they hadn't moved yet. Not wasting the opportunity, Lorent sent a flurry of shots at them. They all hit center mass, causing an eruption of gore from the chest cavities of each trooper. As he turned to face the last squad, his shields began to flicker, dropping slowly, but not enough to warrant any worry. The squad had opened fire on him, the grain sized pellets doing negligible damage. He didn't open fire, instead he activated his gravity well emitter. He pointed his right palm at the squad, causing a distortion, similar to that of a stasis field, causing the troopers to stop firing abruptly. They were suspended in the air, twirling about as if they were weightless. Then they were flung back. Each trooper died as they impacted the ground, the sheer force rupturing their internal organs, their brains shutting down immediately.

Lorent deactivated the emitter. Bringing his weapon to bear, he examined all of the corpses, making sure they were dead. While he continued to roam, a loud 'whoosh' was heard. Looking up, he saw the blue and white Kodiak from the Normandy descend onto the compound. It's stabilization thrusters sputtering, as it hovered over the ground. The door on the side of the drop ship slid open, dispensing the three alliance personnel. They made their way to Lorent, who had stood with his weapon at the ready. Just incase Cerberus tried another ambush. Though nothing happened as the group reached Lorent. He lowered his weapon, looking to Shepard.

Shepard, however, looked at the carnage that was strewn about. Pieces of the Cerberus troopers laid scattered across the dry dirt, most of the bodies being unidentifiable. He saw a dead trooper with his neck and armor compressed into nothing more than a pencil. He grimaced as he imagined being on the receiving end of such strength. Ashley just shivered, trying and failing not to stare at him… It, without fear. 'Not even a Krogan in blood rage would be capable of causing so much carnage to their victims.' Ashley thought, thankful her full helmet blocked any smell from permeating her nasal cavity. James shook his head, muttering a Spanish prayer as he walked by some of the bodies.

Shepard recovered from his stupor, looking up at the Spartan. "Good work, Spartan. You saved us a lot of time. Hopefully Cerberus hasn't been alerted yet. But knowing them, we will have to assume the worst." He paused, looking to the Archives. "Let's get going." He took point, leading the rest of the group to an air lock. Fortunately, everything seemed to be in working order, providing them with an unhindered access to the Archives. Before they could progress however, Ashley spoke up as James and Shepard removed their helmets.

"So what was that Shepard?" she asked crossing her arms, staring down the Commander as he took off his helmet.

"I don't know what you're talking about Ashley." He looked towards James, who seemed to understand his silent plea, who added onto his statement. "The Commander has been monitored ever since he has been on Earth. There is no way he has communicated with them." James huffed in annoyance, while Ashley didn't seemed convinced, but left it alone for now. Lorent was very interested; If the Commander had ties with Cerberus, then this entire operation could be compromised. He decided to just listen and observe, try to dig up more information.

As the group left the airlock, they entered what appeared to be a storage area. There were bodies that laid haphazardly across the floor, most of them Alliance personnel, and a few Cerberus bodies. Lorent deduced it must have been a surprise attack, and that Cerberus had some inside help, as they appeared to be some terrorist cell. Taking on a galactic power so close to their homeworld would be suicide, without inside help of course.

With that in mind, he swept the room with his thermal vision, finding all of the bodies to be of some warmth. They must have not been dead that long. He and the rest of the group halted after they heard a metallic bang from up above. Turning their attention to it, a ruckus was heard from the ventilation shafts. Lorent scanned with his thermal, finding one feminine figure being pursued by two armored male figures. He noted the female had a lower body temperature than normal, but disregarded it. He raised the Type 2, readying himself as the first shadow began to tumble out of the shaft. Landing on a generator, she rolled off. She cast a singularity at the troopers behind her, causing them to hang helplessly in the air as she finished them off with her pistol. She turned to to the group. Lorent was immediately on edge, as she was most definitely not Human. But she looked like a Human Female, only difference was her blue hue, and the crests that ran along to the back of her neck.

"Shepard? What are you doing here?" she asked, running to Shepard.

Shepard ran and met her, embracing in a passionate kiss… Lorent's mind did a backflip. He quite literally couldn't process what he had just seen. He was rendered completely mute. Verbally anyway.

Shepard broke the kiss, speaking with her. "Hackett sent me. He said you found a way to defeat the Reapers." She nodded. "Yes, I found a design for a weapon. Massive in scale. But my estimations say we can build it. Cerberus has the Archive room locked down, and they vented the atmosphere in one of the levels. The readings are back to normal now." She looked Shepard in his eyes. "How bad was Earth?" her tone was solemn and somehow sympathetic. Shepard sighed. "Earth was a mess. We were totally unprepared. Millions of confirmed civilian casualties, and we lost most of the fleet." She gasped and whispered. "By the goddess… I'm so sorry Shepard." Shepard gave her a sad smile. "It's ok Liara. If you truly found a way to beat the Reapers, their deaths will be avenged."

Liara nodded solemnly. Believing that if anyone could could make this a reality, Shepard would be it. She looked past Shepard, seeing Ashley made her smile. She politely scooted pass Shepard, making her way to her old friend. She found herself suddenly knock on her ass. She had walked right into some metallic object. She held her hand to her forehead, shaking the dizziness off, looking up to see what she had hit. Her breath hitched in her throat. Standing over was a monolithic being clad in midnight black armor, with no discernable visor. Only a sloped faceplate, with angry red lights adorning it. Backing up quickly with her hands, she hastily stood up. Preparing a biotic attack until Shepard grabbed her arm."Woah! Liara, he's on our side!"

Liara looked back to Shepard, then back at the being. It looked on over the situation impassively. She slowly dissipated the biotic fields that had been gathering around her hands. Regaining her friendly composure, she took a step forward and raised her left hand."Hi, I'm Doctor Liara T'Soni. Any friend of Shepard's, is a friend of mine." She gave the being an Asari smile, hoping to charm her way back from almost attacking it. The being didn't seem to move at all, just staring at her. It eventually moved, but it took a rough step past her and moved to the door that lead to the Archives.

Liara looked at Ashley, dropping her hand back down to her side. "What the hell was that about?" She asked. Ashley just shrugged."I haven't known 'him' that long. He showed up right before the Reaper attack on Earth. Hasn't said much." Liara just raised a quizzical eyebrow. Looking to James for a more informative answer. James just shrugged. Sighing she looked to Shepard, who seemed to be thinking. He looked at her, his blue eyes calming her down tremendously."He's Human. He showed up before the attack like Ashley said. He tried warning us, but he was too late. We can trust him. He helped me and Anderson in Vancouver." He paused, placing a hand on her shoulder."But he's not important right now. We need to get to the Archives before Cerberus can get what they came for." Liara just sighed. "The main entrance is through that door." she pointed to the door Lorent stood in front of. "It's been cut off from the power. Cerberus did it. That's why i had to use the ventilation shaft."

Shepard seemed to lower his head in thought, he turned to Lorent who was facing the door. "Spartan, can yo-" He was interrupted as Lorent had struck the door. His arm had moved so fast he couldn't even see it. Only hearing a loud metallic 'bang' as the four inch blast door was ripped out of the wall, and sent careening down the hall with a series of smaller 'bangs'. He turned back to Shepard, his body now back to it's normal stance. "Door is clear." he said plainly. Shepard and the others simply had their eyes widened by the feat, Liara especially was flabbergasted. 'By Athame!' she thought internally. Shepard thought back to the Husks that tried to attack the Spartan back on the roof. Shivering, he shook himself out of his stupor. "Alright. Looks we have a clear passage way. Let's get a move on." he shouldered his Avenger, moving to the corridor. The rest eventually followed suit, Lorent filled in behind them. His height not restricted as it seemed it was a cargo tunnel.

As they moved deeper into the site, they had stopped at a security terminal. Liara had dug through the network feed, finding footage of a supposed Doctor shooting an Alliance security officer in the back of the head. She was deeply disturbed by the revelation."Goddess, how long has Cerberus been planning this?" She stepped back from the terminal, her hands clasped on top of her head as she bared a look of utter disbelief.

Lorent thought back to his idea of this being an inside job. Putting the Commander in a bad light. He decided to wait until they reached the Archives to act upon the revelation.

Commander Shepard walked up the door that lead to the Archive Room, activating his omni-tool and hacking the door. It slid open with a silent hiss, but a series of loud weapon discharges ended the silence. Mass Accelerator rounds pinged off the doorway, narrowly missing Shepard as he dove out of the way. He stacked up against a pillar, peering down the corridor. He saw a security turret and a squad of Assault Troopers who had their weapons sighted on the Corridor. Gritting his teeth, he looked back at his squad who had yet to enter the corridor. "There's a security turret down there, we can't move through without getting chewed up." He looked to Lorent, the Spartan had a new weapon at the ready, it was smaller than the one he had used in Vancouver. "Spartan, can your shield take the firepower?"

Lorent walked to the corridor, peering down through it. He saw the weapon emplacement on the ceiling. The weapons he had encountered so far didn't seem to do that much damage to his shields, though this one was significantly larger than the handheld variants. Though he was sure that the armor and his shields could take the punishment. With his decision made, he looked back down at Shepard, nodding. "Affirmative, the hard light shield should be able to take the fire. You can stack up on me while i move through."

Shepard smirked, giving the rest the signal to stack up behind Lorent. Lorent crossed his arms in front of him, causing a rectangular dull orange shield to form. He then stepped into the corridor, mass accelerator rounds immediately began to pound his shield. Causing them to flatten or shatter in some cases. He turned back to the assorted squad. "Moving." He said before walking briskly down the hallway, the rest following him. Making sure to stay behind his bulk. The march didn't take long, his long stride covering the distance in seconds. Once they cleared the hallway, the squad fanned out to find cover, Shepard and Ashley went left, while James and Liara slid into cover on the right side. "Now what Shepard!" Liara yelled over the deafening sound of the auto cannon. Shepard responded immediately. "We deal with the Troopers! The Spartan will handle the cannon, now go!"

Shepard popped out of cover, his Avenger coughing out a flurry of pellets, striking down one of the troopers in the burst. Liara casted a singularity, the ball of dark energy drawing in two of the assault troopers as they screamed. The ball exploded outwards, leaving them dismembered and bleeding on the metal deck.

Lorent had dropped his hard light shielding, activating one of his hard light blades, he jumped at the turret. It peppered his shields with bullets, but not causing them to drop before he swung his arms downward, slicing it in half. Causing it to drop to the deck uselessly as it sparked and smoked.

He landed on his two feet, his knees didn't even have to bend to absorb the fall. Looking around, he saw that the squad had eliminated the remaining troopers. He made his way over to Shepard. He seemed to be in another argument with Ashley.

"Look at that thing Shepard! That could be you for all i know." She turned away from him, looking down. Lorent investigated the corpse that seemed to have sparked the argument, looking down he found that the trooper had been altered, in looked vaguely reminiscent of the Reaper ground forces he and the commander had encountered. He looked at the Commander, using his suits biometrics scanner to analyze the commander. It came back normal, albeit with a few cybernetics that seemed to be here and there. He was perfectly Human.

"Lieutenant-Commander." His monotone almost synthetic voice startled her, she turned around slowly, looking up at the thing. It unnerved her, it's armored carapace sent chills down her spine. It spoke again, this time a bit more forcefully. "What is your quarrel with the Commander?" it basically demanded from her. _"What does it think it's doing? What does it know about anything?"_ She thought to herself. "Commander Shepard here-" She pointed at him. "Has had ties with Cerberus, he was brought back from the dead by their hand. I have ever-" She was abruptly cut off by him as he spoke. "Commander Shepard was reinstated by the Admiral, he has operational authority. You are wasting time by constantly arguing with him. We have a mission to complete, i suggest you stow your questions until this op is over."

His cold mechanical voice rang out in the room for a bit, until he stomped past her. Leaving a bewildered Ashley, and a slightly amused Shepard. Though he didn't show it. "He's right Ash. We can talk after the mission." He jogged after the Spartan, leaving her to ponder. "What the hell does he know. He… It doesn't have the right to question her!" She looked back, watching as his giant form moved to the tram entrance. "I will find out what you are… Spartan."

* * *

 **Sorry for the wait. I have been taking care of stuff for my future college, i went down for the weekend to visit my friend, and got drunk quite a bit too much. I had planned to finish it when i came back, but i was drained. I decided to end it here, next chapter will finish up the Mars Archives, then we will get to the Citadel… That will be really fun/challenging to write. May throw some quad heavy Krogan in there… But anyway, thank you for reading! And thank you to lordarcheronvolistad on DeviantArt for letting me use the armor and the picture! You should check him out, he has a lot of Ancient Humanity artwork.**

 **P.S i plan on re-writing my first chapter, this was originally a short story for my friend, so the intro was very short. I will do a complete re work of it soon.**


	5. Possible Salvation Pt2

**Hey guys! Long time no see huh? I'm sorry to those who might have been waiting on this, i wouldn't know tho, i have no reviews from any of y'all homies:( But anyway, i can't believe how many follows and favs this story has so far! While the numbers may seem miniscule to most, it means a hell of a lot to me. So thank you to everyone who followed or favorited my mediocre story. But seriously guys, please review! I want to get better as a writer, so constructive non-asshole/condescending reviews would be appreciated. If you have a beef with me, or my story, feel free to PM me! With all the technical shit out of the way, let's dive into the chapter!-TheDidactsHand**

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Lorent shouldered the LHL, scanning the wide room with fluid precision. 'Clear left, Clear right, Clear high' This mantra ran through his brain each time the group had entered a new area. To his relief the group had no problem keeping pace with him, and had displayed a professional demeanor throughout their trek to the tram station.

Even the xeno had surprised him to a degree, she had proven to handle herself well in a combat scenario. And followed orders to a Tee.

The group had made it to the tram entrance, where the Commander had miraculously been able to fool a platoon of Cerberus troopers into coming back to their side of the station. The commander had proved to be a competent leader, who could handle stress, and perform under pressure. Lorent admired that, most officers he dealt with were ONI spooks who never left the ship they were stationed on. The Commander had garnered some of his trust, and respect for now. Only time will tell if he will truly throw his unwavering loyalty at him.

They stopped at the entrance, the Commander began to brief them of his plan. "Listen up, we don't have a lot of time. So let's do it clean, and we can get to the Archives quicker." He paused, gauging the groups attention. They all gave firm nods, so he continued."Liara, i want you with me. We can use our biotics to bust up their front. Ashley, Vega. I want you two on top, wait till they funnell in, then unleash hell on 'em." Ashley and James nodded, turning around and running to either side of the tram entrance, training their weapons on the doors.

Shepard was about to rush off to get in cover, but he was startled by a forgotten voice. "Sir, what about me?" Shepard mentally chided himself. 'How the hell do i keep forgetting about the Spartan?' He turned to face the massive man, looking up as he formulated the best way to use him. "Spartan, i saw how you seem to be able to bring weapons to you at will. Through whatever means… Do you have any heavy weapons at your disposal?" He asked.

The man seemed to just stare at him, until he moved his arms. A small blue disk of corona energy appeared. He threw the weapon he held in his hand into the swirling disk. Then another larger one flew out. He caught it in one hand, the portal closed. The Spartan shouldered the weapon, like the others, it glowed with an azure color. And hummed like a piece of machinery, only this one hummed much louder than the others.

"I'm locked and loaded Commander. Where do you need me?" The man said. Shepard immediately figured out where to put him. "It looks like that armor of yours can take a hell of a beating… I want you right in front of the door. We'll use you as bait, and when we drop the pain on their heads, you open up a can of whoop ass with... whatever the hell that is."

Shepard had fully expected the Spartan to reject his order, but to his surprise he nodded. Jogging down to the front entrance and shouldering his weapon. 'The guy is fucking nuts' he said to himself. He positioned himself next to Liara, waiting on the Cerberus Troopers.

They came in force, with phalanx of Centaurians, and a plethora of Assault Troopers, they filed into the room slowly. Trying to encircle the Spartan, as they perceived him to be the only threat. Oh how wrong they were.

One of the leaders yelled at him."Drop the weapon now!" They said, cocking their own, as if to emphasize that 'We're armed, and we have lots of guns.' Lorent chuckled softly to himself, passively he began to charge the EV14, the rails that dispelled the plasma, began to fill with the deadly motes of ionized gas. He commed the Commander. "Get ready to fire on my signal." The commander quickly shot back."Roger. What's the signal?" Lorent didn't reply. He focused his mind, tripping his adrenal gland, a new ability he could actively tap into due to his new augmentations. The adrenaline spike, combined with copious amounts of artificial stimulant; slowed his view of the world down to a near standstill, surpassing even the realm of Spartan Time.

He quickly shouldered the glorified Plasma Cannon, his movements leaving three series of after images, he depressed and held to button used to fire the weapon, the vibrant blue lance shot out and near light speed. He targeted the leader first. He was instantly turned into a statue of glass, and this continued, he shifted his aim steadily. The beam melting most of the contacts it hit. Causing many of the Centaurians to become melted into their shields.

This lasted only three seconds. Many of them were too stunned to react.

Shepard didn't even see what had happened, one moment the Spartan is standing there surrounded, the next he is standing with his weapon, the barrell smoking. And in front of him were melted puddles of Cerberus. He nearly retched at the display, but kept his cool. He calmly commed the rest of the squad. "Open fire." As soon as he uttered those words, Ashley and Vega both popped over their cover. They both fired their respective rifles. The hyper velocity slugs cracked around the un organized troopers below. Piercing their armor easily.

Shepard and Liara had opted to only throw small singularities at the small groups left. Easily crushing and dismembering the troopers.

Lorent, on his part, engaged the remaining Centaurians. A trio attempted to bum rush him, hoping to overpower the Spartan. They learned that wasn't a great plan when Lorent activated the hard light blade on his right forearm. Swinging it so fast a gust of wind followed as the blade of highly excited photons cut through their shields and helmets. They fell to the floor in a bloody heap.

He turned to find five more, slowly retreating back into the tramway.

Lorent sprinted at them, causing them to stumble slightly, their phalanx broken, not that it mattered. He barreled through them like a massive bowling ball. Them being the pins. Except they didn't get back up. Whipping his head around, he found the Commander walking up and letting his gun hand low. "All clear Spartan. Good work." Shepard smiled at him.

He nodded at the Commander. Regrouping. He threw the EV14 back into slipspace, and retrieved the LHL.

Shepard waited until everyone was present. When Ashley and Vega came down the steps, he spoke up. "Good work everyone. The easy part is over. Now that two squads are missing, we can be sure that Cerberus has shored up their defense quite a bit. So once we get access to the main hub; we are guns blazing the whole way. We don't have time to waste. Any objections?" He asked looking from person to person.

Ashley pursed her lips. While Vega shrugged. Liara just smiled. Lorent did the same thing he did when he wasn't in combat. Stand.

Shepard nodded. "Let's get going. Spartan, you first." Lorent shrugged. Turning himself around and into the tram car. Ducking down a bit as he squeezed himself through the door. The car shakes a bit as he finally situated himself towards the rear. Soon after the rest of the group piles in, Shepard being last. He pushed the button at the end of the tram, causing it to lurch forward as it slid above the canyon below.

The tram bumped a few times as they made it across, though thankfully it didn't plummet into oblivion on account of Lorent's weight. The tram grinded to a halt. The door opened with a slight hiss. Commander Shepard stepped onto the metal deck with a dull 'clank'. Soon followed by Liara, Ashley, and James. They all fanned out, setting up a loose perimeter.

It was quiet. Really quiet. No sign of Cerberus anyway. Shepard spoke through the radio."Alright team. It seems like they are in hiding. Keep your eyes up. And stay frosty." He said. He stood up, his back slightly hunched and his weapon ready. He began walking forward.

'Bang'

He stopped, looking around for the source of the sound. As well as the rest of the team.

'Bang'

This time it was even louder. "Anyone got eyes on?" He asked.

"Negative." Ashley said. He weapon sweeping the ceiling.

"I don't see nothing Shepard." James said crouching down.

'BANG'

A piece of metal flew over the heads of the team, it came from behind them. They all did a one eighty. Their weapons pointing up. Then immediately back down. They saw the Spartan walking out of the new exit he had made in the tram.

He walked a few paces, and looked down at the team impassively."I needed a way out." He said plainly.

Shepard tried his hardest not to laugh, James too. Ashley just frowned and did an about face, storming away from the team. Liara just stared wide eyed at yet another amazing feat of strength.

Once Shepard had calmed down, he spoke. "Alright team. Let's head to the Archive room." The assorted team left, making their way to the Archive room. Strangely not encountering any resistance along the way. Physically or automated.

"Eyes up team. That's the door." Shepard said as they rounded the corner of the hall. The team stacked up, while Shepard flicked on his Omni Tool. Trying and failing to hack through the door.

Meanwhile Lorent flicked on his pulse array with a series of blinks, his vision turned into an almost black field of darkness, looking through the wall. His armor sent out passive pings throughout a forty meter radius. No contacts flickered onto his HUD.

Shutting the mode down, his visor returned to its normal display. He looked to the Commander. Who was still fidgeting with his Omni Tool. "I think this is not your strong suite Shepard." Liara said.

Shepard scoffed, giving a confident smile as he tapped his orange interface some more. "I think you will find." He vigorously tapped some more."That i am just as good at hacking, as i am shooting things. Observe." He let a triumphant smile adorn his face, pressing a final button. The Omni Tool pulsed a vibrant green. Then with a loud beep, turned a blood red.

James chuckled. "Nice one Shepard."

Shepard frowned and typed some more only to produce the same results. He beat his fist on the terminal. "Dammit!" He cursed.

Lorent smirked just a tad under his helmet. Before pushing off. He stepped back, looking for weak point in the door. He talked while he performed his task. "Commander. The very definition of insanity, is performing the same action over and over; and expecting a different result." He paused, rearing back his fist."I believe that brute force is sometimes appropriate, observe." He launched his fist at the door. Ripping the hydraulic mechanisms and the clamps for the door out of the wall. Leaving behind smoking wires, and dust from chunks of the wall being violently ripped out.

Lorent shook his hand the smallest bit. That had kind of stung.

James delved into full on laughter. "I like his style. You could learn a thing or two from him Shepard." James said, filing into the room.

Shepard just deflated, sluggishly shouldering his gun before moving into the archive room.

Ashley went to the right, slowly walking with her gun down and next to her thigh.

Liara accompanied Shepard to the center data console, she began to mine for data pertaining to the Crucible.

Lorent watched over everyone like a hawk. He looked to the ceilings, seeing if any troopers had the bright idea of rappelling into a pressurised room. After staring up for about two seconds, he put those worries to rest.

He began to tone down. His weapon lowering the slightest bit. But he began to hear as sound. It was coming from the center of the room. He swung his torso around. The LHL bared at whatever threat was revealing itself. To his confusion, it was a hologram. His augmented mind was already assemenating the information that he could visually see. The man appeared to be well dressed. He had grey hair, or what he thought to be greying hair. A cigarette casually grasped between his fingers. His stance showed no fear. In fact, it looked like it was almost lazy.

"Shepard." The man said. To Liara's credit, she responded rather fast. Her weapon trained on where Human's head would be. "Illusive man." She said with disgust and surprise.

'Illusive Man?' Lorent asked to himself.

"What are you doing here?" Shepard asked with a cold tone.

Illusive man just gazed up at the archives. "What i've always wanted. The Protheans. What a fascinating race. The Alliance has had thirty years with this knowledge. And tell me, what have they done with it?" he said bitterly.

"A helluva lot more good than you have. Just look at what you've done to your own men!" Shepard exclaimed.

The Illusive Man waved him off. "I improved them. Made them what Humanity should be. Like your new friend." He turned to Lorent, who gripped his LHL. "Tell me. How did you become that way? No Human is that strong. And despite my best efforts, doesn't possess technology such as yours."

Lorent replied in an even tone. "Classified."

The Illusive Man must have found it humorous, as he began to chuckle a bit. Confusing the group. "I figured. Your very stance screams soldier." he paused. His smile vanishing, being replaced with a thin blank look. "However. I will warn you. Stay out of my way. Or you will be crushed." He paused. Turning back to Shepard. "That goes for you too Shepard. Consider this your final warning." He finished. He took a drag from his cigarette, exhaling. "Farewell Shepard." he said. The hologram disappearing.

Shepard Scoffed. "Duly noted. Liara." He said.

Liara nodded, walking back over to the terminal, trying to gain access to the data. Only to find it being erased and dumped somewhere offsite. "Shepard!"

"what ?" Shepard turned, walking to her."

"The data. It's not here. It's being erased."

He hit the table with his fist. "Damnit. How is he doing it?" He asked

"It's a local connection. A terminal nearby."

Ashley walked around the corner, hearing a scuffle. She raised her weapon at the person accessing the terminal. "Hands up! Back away from the terminal now!" She commanded.

The woman looked back, then in a flurry of motions reverse roundhouse kicked Ashley in her sternum, and dropped an elbow onto the back of her head. The blows were much stronger than she had anticipated.

The woman drove her Omni Tool into the terminal. Shutting down the archives entirely. She began to run full tilt around the catwalk. Shepard taking a few shots but missing an account to her speed. "She's faster than she looks!" Ashley yelled over the radio.

"You think! Someone get after her!" Shepard yelled. Running to the door.

"I'm on it!" James yelled. He collapsed his gun, breaking down as he attempted to tackle her, only for the woman to spin out of his grasp. He hit the deck with a low grunt. "I missed!" He cursed. Scrambling up to give chase.

Lorent ran to Ashley, she was still on a knee breathing heavily from the onslaught she had just received. "Are you alright ma'am?" He asked. Attempting to help pull her up. His large hands eclipsing her bicep with minimal effort.

She jerked around, standing up on her own. She rounded on Lorent. "I don't need your help freak!" She yelled. Lorent retracted his hand slowly. "Noted." He brushed past her. "I'm in pursuit with you Commander." He said. Running full tilt through the hallways, not sparing Ashley another glance as he smashed through walls with his titanic bulk.

"Roger Spartan. Hurry it up! She has transport inbound!" Shepard said dodging another orange blast from the fleeing woman. He fired some pot shots, cursing as she effortlessly dodged them with a grace not befitting of a mere Human. Something was up. And right now that something was kicking his ass in P.T. He ran up a fallen ventilation shaft. Then pursued her up a ladder. Finally arriving onto an open stretch of rooftop.

There he heard the unmistakable hum of a Kodiak. Cursing, he pushed his muscles to the max, slowly gaining on the woman. He drew his pistol, shooting her in the back once. Causing her to stumble. Allowing him to close the gap a bit more. Though it wasn't enough. The Cerberus Kodiak floated up and into view, hovering just feet away from the edge, it's troop compartment open.

"Damnit! She's escaping!" He yelled in between breaths as he watched her jump into compartment. It closed, and the Kodiak began to dust off. "Normandy? Spartan? Can anyone hear me?" He asked in a panic. He dropped to his knees, Ashley, James, and Liara not that far behind. Running up and stopping next to him in heavy pants of labored breath.

"Where's the Spartan?" Asked James in a huff watching as the Kodiak began to leave.

"Right here." Lorent said. Crashing through another wall in the building below the flight path of the Kodiak.

"Right whe- Oh" James could only watched as the Spartan came rocketing through the roof of the building next to them. Like a Phoenix the, he continued traveling. Debris still erupting outwards and onto the ground below. His massive outstretched bulk hit the canopy of the Kodiak. His mass causing the Kodiak to rock and shift off course.

Lorent hung on, looking into the cockpit he saw the face of the pilot as he tried to frantically get the drop ship on course. Lorent had other plans. Punching through the reinforced glass like it was wet tissue paper, he grabbed the pilot. Easily ripping him out of his seat, and throwing him down to the red dirt below. The dropship began to list. Heading back towards the roof it had just left.

"Oh shit." Was all Shepard could say. He used his biotics to push himself backwards and out of the way. Liara doing the same. Ashley and James tried to do the same. Running frantically as the dropships engines whined as it came closer.

Lorent still hung on, he waited until he got closer to the roof. He watched as Ashley and James fled. They were mostly in the clear, until Ashley fell. Clutching her ribs in very apparent pain. Cursing, Lorent not entirely sure why he was doing something this reckless, jumped off the falling drop ship. Landing right in front of Ashley. He immediately braced himself. Holding out his arms in a catching motion.

The drop ship impacted the roof roughly, immediately catching catching fire as it tumbled fast towards Lorent.

"Spartan! Get out of there now!" Shepard yelled, running to assist him.

He was too late, the drop ship flipped up and onto Lorent and Ashley. A thick black cloud obscured his vision. "NO! Dammit no!" He fell to his knees. Watching as fire and smoke billowed out of where the drop ship undoubtedly rested.

Or it seemed that way.

Liara placed her hand on Shepard's shoulder. "I'm… Sorry Shepard."

James shook his head with sorrow.

Shepard brought himself onto his feet. Slighing. "Radio the Normandy. We need to leave." he turned around, looking away from the wreak.

Liara dropped her head, turning as well. Until the groan of metal was heard. Turning around, she saw the dropship begin to shift. Then the smoke cleared up… "By the goddess... " she whispered. staring in awe.

Shepard heard Liara, he turned himself. His eyes widening to epic proportions.

For the drop ship was now airborne again, except it was being held above a certain someone's head.

Ashley clutched her eyes. Expecting to be flattened by either the Spartan. Or the Kodiak. When she heard Liara, she knew she wasn't dead. But how? Well, she opened her eyes. She nearly fainted, standing above her like a hero straight out of a comic, was the Spartan. Holding the Kodiak over his head like it was just a pillow. He threw it to the side with caution. The craft shaking the roof. He looked down at her. He looked on with that same impassiveness. "Are you alright ma'am?" He asked yet again. He offered her his hand.

Ashley looked at his hand with uncertainty. Not sure if she could trust him. But her rational non crushed brain told her otherwise. She accepted the large appendage. With a surprising amount of grace he helped her up. She looked up at him. Smiling and nodding her thanks. He returned it with a small one of his own.

Lorent looked over to the Commander, his eyes were still wide. "Mission accomplished commander." He said as if he hadn't done an act of a god.

Commander Shepard shook his head very slowly. "You don't say…"

'Bang'

The collective team looked at the downed dropship, watching as the door opened. Out of the fires within, stepped out a robotic entity. With an Orange visor of some kind. She looked on with cold disregard. She stepped out, her body charred and beaten from the crash. "Orders?" She asked.

"Finish them." a voice said. She nodded. Springing into action. She targeted the Spartan first. Since he was the biggest threat. Unfortunately for her, it was her last target. She drew in, attempting to perform an overhead axe kick. She didn't get far as Lorent moved with an inhumane speed. He grabbed her foot, and using her momentum. Slung her into the ground with a 'crack'.

Shepard stepped up, his composure finally retained. He looked around to his team. "Good work. Now we have the data. One more step closer to finally ending this war." He said. The Normandy descended down, lowering the ramp.

"Spartan. Bring that thing with us. Who knows what data it could have." Lorent nodded. Picking it up by the waist, and slinging it over his shoulder. Following Shepard into the Normandy…

* * *

 **Significantly shorter than i wanted it to be. But i suppose it's better than nothing. I have taken a big break from this because i wasn't sure what direction i wanted to take this in. I kind of just started writing with no semblance of a plot. But i have been brainstorming, and writing more. I think i have an idea of what i want to do. So please stay tuned for more updates. I apologize this one took as long as it did. Also, please note Lorent's height is now 10'2". I apologize for the first one. It was a bit ambitious of me. Lastly, i hope the Kodiak scene as a whole wasn't too OTP. I want Lorent to be seen as an actual hero, so having these little Avenger type moments, would be a cool element to have. Although if you guys don't like it, i won't have anymore of those.**

 **P.S The first chapter is still being rewritten.**


	6. NOT AN UPDATE

**Hey guys, It's me. I know it has been quite some time since the last update, or any notice for this story. I'm sad to say, that I will be scraping this current version, and rewriting it from scratch.**

 **So I am terribly sorry to anyone who might have been waiting for an update. Pretty shit move on my part, but school and work were A LOT harder to balance than i had anticipated. But fear not, I have used my break to rest and recuperate, and I am feeling much more motivated to write. And with the lighter workload i have this semester, I definitely intend to get cracking on my stories. I hope you all stay tuned for all my stories, as they will be receiving updates here soon.**

 **Thank you all for your patience!**

 **-TheDidactsHand**


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